A Complex System Of Small RNAs In The Unicellular Green Alga Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii & Sequence And Epitope Analysis Of Surface Proteins Of Avian Influenza H5N1 Viruses From Asian Patients

PART ONE Endogenous small RNAs function in RNA interference (RNAi) pathways to control gene expression through mRNA cleavage, translational repression, or chromatin modification. Plants and animals contain many microRNAs (miRNAs) that play vital roles in development, including helping to specify cell type and tissue identity. To date, no miRNAs have been reported in unicellular organisms. Here we show that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii,a unicellular green alga, encodes many miRNAs. We also show that a Chlamydomonas miRNA can direct the cleavage of its target mRNA in vivo and in vitro. We further show that the expression of some miRNAs/Candidates increases or decreases during Chlamydomonas gametogenesis. In addition to miRNAs, Chlamydomonas harbors other types of small RNAs including phasing siRNAs that are reminiscent of plant trans-acting siRNAs, as well as siRNAs originating from protein coding genes and transposons. Our findings suggest that the miRNA pathway and some siRNA pathways are ancient mechanisms of gene regulation that evolved prior to the emergence of multicellularity.PART TWO Increasing cases of human infections with the high pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 have raised great concern on potential human flu pandemics caused by H5N1. The two viral surface glycoproteins, the hemagglutinin (HA) and the neuraminidase (NA) proteins, are major antigens of H5N1. Introducing new mutations on these two proteins is the major strategy used by H5N1 to expand host range and to avoid the recognition of host immune systems. We analyzed the two surface proteins of H5N1 from Asian human patients and identified many new mutation sites, including a few that were unique to certain lethal strains. We also analyzed the distribution of mutations on different epitopes of the two surface proteins. A receptor-binding site that might involve in the determination of host specificity of H5N1 was also found. Results reported here provided information for better understanding of the evolution trend of H5N1 genome in human.