Heisenberg-Förderung, Professur

The ability to regulate gene expression in time and space is essential for the development of multi-cellular organisms. Post-transcriptional mRNA regulation influences protein synthesis by affecting the rate of translation initiation or the abundance of mRNA molecules, resulting either in a qualitative (all-or-none) or quantitative (dose) effect. Especially germ cells exploit this mechanism of gene expression to facilitate gamete formation and subsequently embryogenesis. My work is devoted to elucidate post transcriptional RNA-regulatory networks to understand germline development in metazoans. To this end, I study the reproductive organ of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Its gonad is a very established and powerful model system to elucidate the post-transcriptional mechanisms underlying sex-specific gametogenesis and primordial germ cell specification in the early embryo.