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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP18: Cells, Molecules & Genes 3 - 10 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 1
Session Chair: Shilpa Kapoor, The University of Melbourne
Session Chair: Balu Balan, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

Presentation 2

The Early-Diverging Eukaryote Giardia Reveals the Origins of Eukaryotic Post-Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

Balu Balan^1,3, Alex Lam^1,3, Amrita Vijay^1,3, Myo Nuang^1,5, Swapnil Tichkule^1,8, Esther Bandala Sanchez^1,3, Sachin Khurana^1,3, Waruni Abeysekera^1,3, Samantha J. Emery-Corbin^1,7, Jarrod J. Sandow¹, David Zhu¹, Ahmad Wardak¹, Jacob Munro^1,3, Pradip Roy^1,3, Brendan Robert E. Ansell^1,3, Peter Czabotar^1,3, Andrew I. Webb^1,3, Marija Darmacian^1,3, Gordon K Smyth^1,3, Olivia Rissland⁶, Staffan G. Svärd⁴, Aaron R. Jex^1,2,3

1: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia; 2: Faculty of Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 3: Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; 4: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 5: Disease Elimination and Maternal and Child Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 6: Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA; 7: Monash Proteomics and Metabolomics Platform, Monash University, Victoria, Australia; 8: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate splicing, RNA silencing, and translational repression in eukaryotes. Many are conserved from yeast to humans but are absent or rudimentary in prokaryotes, suggesting an early emergence of “eukaryotic-innovative” RBPs. We hypothesised that these RBPs arose long before yeast and are retained in Giardia, an early-diverging eukaryote. To test this, we built a phylogenomic atlas of RBP families across the tree of life and analysed domain topology, domain co-occurrence, and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) to define their architectural evolution. We then characterised the Giardia RBPome using domain- and structure-informed annotation integrated with transcriptomics, proteomics, and RNA–protein interactome capture to identify canonical and non-canonical (“moonlighting”) RBPs. Direct RNA targets and regulatory networks of representative eukaryotic-innovative RBPs, including PUF, DDX3X, EIF4A, and PGK, were resolved using enhanced CLIP-seq and RBP immunoprecipitation. Functional significance was assessed by CRISPRi-based genetics, and condensate behaviour was tested using phase-separation assays in vitro and in vivo. Our analyses show that multiple eukaryotic-innovative RBPs are already present in Giardia, with simplified but functional architectures, conserved RNA–protein networks, regulatory phenotypes, and condensate-like behaviour, establishing Giardia as a minimal model for the earliest evolution of eukaryotic post-transcriptional control.