KEYWORDS
mRNA metylation
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alternative splicing
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Drosophila genetics
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NMJ
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sex determination
Matthias Soller received his Ph.D. in Genetics, Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of Zurich under the supervision of Eric Kubli (not on tRNAs though). He obtained a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship to move to Brandeis University, Boston, USA to work with Kalpana White on ELAV RNA binding proteins in neuronal development. He then joined the University of Birmingham, UK in 2006 to establish his own research group in the School of Biosciences. His major research interest has been to understand post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in neuronal development and function. A particular focus in these studies has been elucidating the function of mRNA modifications in Drosophila sex determination, neuronal development and function. He also studies how neuronal ELAV RNA binding proteins generate binding specificity to regulate alternative splicing in a complex cellular environment, and how reproductive behaviors are encoded in the brain.
RNA -protein interactions (EMSA, UV-crosslinking, IP)
In vitro RNA processing assays (methylation, splicing, 3’ end processing)
RNA modification analysis (TLC)
Drosophila genetics
NMJ analysis
Reproductive behaviours
sex determination
Confocal microscopy
Balacco, D.L. and Soller, M. (2019) The m6A writer: Rise of a machine for growing tasks. Biochemistry 58: 363-378. Invited review.
Haussmann, I. U., Ustaoglu, P., Brauer, U., Hemani, Y., Dix, T. and Soller, M. (2019) Plasmid-based gap-repair recombineered transgenes reveal a central role for introns in mutually exclusive alternative splicing of Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule exon 4. NAR 47:1389-1403.
Roignant, JY and Soller, M. (2017). m6A in mRNA: An ancient mechanism for fine-tuning gene expression. Opinion Article. Trends in Genetics 33: 380-90.
Haussmann, I.U., Bodi, Z., Sanchez-Moran, E., Mongan, N., Archer, N., Fray, R., and Soller, M. (2016) m6A potentiates Sxl alternative pre-mRNA splicing for robust Drosophila sex determination. Nature 540:301-304.
Zaharieva, E., Haussmann, I. U., Brauer, U. and Soller, M. (2015) Concentration and localization of co-expressed ELAV/Hu family proteins control specificity of mRNA processing. Mol. Cell. Biol. 35: 3104-3115.
Soller, M. and White, K. (2005). ELAV multimerizes on conserved AU4-6 motifs important for ewg splicing regulation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 25: 7580-7591.
Corresponding author.
Soller, M. and White, K. (2003). ELAV inhibits 3′ end formation to promote splicing of ewg pre-mRNA. GenesDev. 17: 2526-2538.
