RNA Salon #4

Thursday 16 Apr 2026, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/Ljubljana

Great Lecture Hall (National Institute of Chemistry)

For the fourth meeting of the Ljubljana RNA Salon in 2025/2026, we will have a invited lecture given by Dr. Alessandra Magistrato from CNR-IOM at SISSA in Trieste, Italy.

The RNA Salon will take place at the National Institute of Chemistry.

14:00 → 15:00 Invited lecture

14:00 Exploring RNA Metabolism through All-Atom Simulations

Complex protein/RNA macromolecular engines catalyze formation of mature messenger, ribosomal, and transfer RNAs from their precursors, giving rise to functional RNAs. In this talk I will illustrate how atomic-level simulations have contributed to elucidate: (i) the function of specific protein components of the spliceosome assembly [1,2]; (ii) the chemical details of premature-messenger and premature-ribosomal RNA splicing [3-4], and (iii) the mechanism of spliceosome helicases [5].

[1] Casalino, L.; Palermo, G.; Spinello, A.; Rothlisberger, U.; Magistrato, A. All-atom simulations disentangle the functional dynamics underlying gene maturation in the intron lariat spliceosome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2018, 115, 6584
[2] Saltalamacchia, A.; Casalino, L.; Borišek, J.; Batista, V. S.; Rivalta, I.; Magistrato, A. Decrypting the Information Exchange Pathways across the Spliceosome Machinery. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 8403.
[3] Borišek, J.; Aupič, J, Magistrato, A. All-Atom Simulations Decrypt the Molecular Terms of RNA Catalysis in the Exon-Ligation Step of the Spliceosome. ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 5328
[4] Aupič, J Borišek, J., Fica, SM, Galej, WP, Magistrato A. Monovalent metal ion binding promotes the first transesterification reaction in the spliceosome. Nature Communications 2023 14 (1), 8482
[5] Movilla, S.; Roca, M.; Moliner, V.; Magistrato, A Molecular Basis of RNA-Driven ATP Hydrolysis in DExH-Box Helicases. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c11980

Speaker: Dr Alessandra Magistrato (CNR-IOM, SISSA, Trieste)