Evolution as a lens into lncRNA functionality

Title: Evolution as a lens into lncRNA functionality

Speaker: Dr Selene Fernandez-Valverde, UNSW 

Abstract: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as prominent elements of the regulatory transactions of eukaryotic genomes. Many of the known regulatory functions of lncRNAs in both animals and plants rely on the rearrangement of chromatin through direct interactions or recruitment of chromatin-modifying elements. In this talk, I will discuss the difficulty in identifying evolutionary conservation in lncRNAs, and how we characterise these evolutionarily volatile elements in the context of their role as regulators of the three-dimensional conformation of nuclear chromatin in plants. I will also discuss how such techniques have vast potential to illuminate biologically relevant lncRNAs when analysed from a comparative genomics perspective.

Bio: Dr. Selene Fernandez-Valverde’s laboratory studies the evolution of long non-coding RNAs in various animals and plants to better understand and predict their functions using bioinformatic tools. She holds a BSc in Genomic Sciences from UNAM, Mexico, and a PhD from the University of Queensland, where she also did postdoctoral work. Dr. Fernandez-Valverde started her laboratory in late 2015 in Cinvestav, Mexico and relocated back to Australia in 2023. Her research has been published in international scientific journals such as Nature, PNAS and eLIFE. She received the  national scholarship L’Oreal-UNESCO-AMC-CONACYT for Women in Science in 2016, the International Rising Talents Fellowship of L’Oreal- UNESCO and a Newton Advanced Fellowship from The Royal Society, UK, in 2018 and The Elisa Izaurralde Award for Innovation in Research, Teaching, and Service from the RNA Society in 2026.