Person: Mukherji, Shankar
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Mukherji
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Shankar
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Mukherji, Shankar
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Publication Electrophilic activity-based RNA probes reveal a self-alkylating RNA for RNA labeling(2014) McDonald, Richard I.; Guilinger, John P.; Mukherji, Shankar; Curtis, Edward A.; Lee, Won I.; Liu, DavidProbes that form covalent bonds with RNA molecules based on their chemical reactivity would advance our ability to study the transcriptome. We developed a set of electrophilic activity-based RNA probes designed to react with unusually nucleophilic RNAs. We used these probes to identify reactive genome-encoded RNAs, resulting in the discovery of a 42-nt catalytic RNA from an archaebacterium that reacts with a 2,3-disubstituted epoxide at N7 of a specific guanosine. Detailed characterization of the catalytic RNA revealed the structural requirements for reactivity. We developed this catalytic RNA into a general tool to selectively conjugate a small molecule to an RNA of interest. This strategy enabled up to 500-fold enrichment of target RNA from total mammalian RNA or from cell lysate. We demonstrated the utility of this approach by selectively capturing proteins in yeast cell lysate that bind to the ASH1 mRNA.Publication Mechanisms of organelle biogenesis govern stochastic fluctuations in organelle abundance(eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2014) Mukherji, Shankar; O'Shea, ErinFluctuations in organelle abundance can profoundly limit the precision of cell biological processes from secretion to metabolism. We modeled the dynamics of organelle biogenesis and predicted that organelle abundance fluctuations depend strongly on the specific mechanisms that increase or decrease the number of a given organelle. Our model exactly predicts the size of experimentally measured Golgi apparatus and vacuole abundance fluctuations, suggesting that cells tolerate the maximum level of variability generated by the Golgi and vacuole biogenesis pathways. We observe large increases in peroxisome abundance fluctuations when cells are transferred from glucose-rich to fatty acid-rich environments. These increased fluctuations are significantly diminished in mutants lacking peroxisome fission factors, leading us to infer that peroxisome biogenesis switches from de novo synthesis to primarily fission. Our work provides a general framework for exploring stochastic organelle biogenesis and using fluctuations to quantitatively unravel the biophysical pathways that control the abundance of subcellular structures. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02678.001Publication Robust Circadian Oscillations in Growing Cyanobacteria Require Transcriptional Feedback(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2013) Teng, Shu-Wen; Mukherji, Shankar; Moffitt, Jeffrey; de Buyl, Sophie; O'Shea, ErinThe remarkably stable circadian oscillations of single cyanobacteria enable a population of growing cells to maintain synchrony for weeks. The cyanobacterial pacemaker is a posttranslational regulation (PTR) circuit that generates circadian oscillations in the phosphorylation state of the clock protein KaiC. Layered on top of the PTR is transcriptional-translational feedback regulation (TTR), common to all circadian systems, consisting of a negative feedback loop in which KaiC regulates its own production. We found that the PTR circuit is sufficient to generate oscillations in growing cyanobacteria. However, in the absence of TTR, individual oscillators were less stable and synchrony was not maintained in a population of cells. Experimentally constrained mathematical modeling reproduced sustained oscillations in the PTR circuit alone and demonstrated the importance of TTR for oscillator synchrony.