= Roy Parker
{c}
\b[Roy Parker] is a <molecular biologist> studying how cells produce, translate and degrade <messenger RNA>. His University of Colorado Boulder profile describes this research program, and his institutional curriculum vitae records a genetics doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco in 1985.<Roy Parker profile at the University of Colorado Boulder>[Research description; institutional CV p.1, education.]{ref}
His early work helped establish a sequence-recognition role for <U2 small nuclear RNA>. In a 1987 collaborative study, compensating changes in U2 suppressed corresponding changes in the yeast intron branch region. The matching suppression connected RNA sequence to <base pairing> in <RNA splicing>, rather than merely associating U2 with the machinery.<Recognition of the TACTAAC box during mRNA splicing in yeast involves base pairing to the U2-like snRNA by Roy Parker and others>[Abstract, branch-site mutations and allele-specific compensatory U2 changes.]{ref}
A later study with <Ujwal Sheth> connected <RNA decay> to cellular location. Functional fusions to <green fluorescent protein> placed several <decapping> factors in discrete cytoplasmic foci, termed <P-bodies>. Perturbing steps of the decay pathway changed those foci, and RNA decay intermediates also localized there.<Decapping and Decay of Messenger RNA Occur in Cytoplasmic Processing Bodies by Ujwal Sheth and Roy Parker>[Abstract and Figures1–2: localization and pathway perturbations.]{ref}
The combination of imaging and perturbation is scientifically important. A fluorescent spot alone shows where a marked component accumulates; it does not establish what reaction happens there. Comparing locations with the consequences of changing particular processing steps tests a mechanistic explanation. Nor does an accumulation of decay intermediates automatically mean that decay has become faster: material can accumulate when an exit step is blocked. This connects the chemistry of <messenger RNA> processing to the organization and dynamics of the <cytoplasm>.
\Image[https://www.colorado.edu/biofrontiers/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/people/royparker.jpg?itok=1Z69LPsE]
{title=Roy Parker, portrait on his University of Colorado Boulder BioFrontiers profile}
{width=280}
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