Ana Kotte

I joined the Legnini Group as a PhD student in December 2023, after graduating in Biochemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.

My research interest lies in regulatory principles that drive mRNA metabolism. I am especially interested in understanding how mRNAs can be subjected to the same metabolic pathways, yet with distinctive dynamics and outcomes. In this regard, I am looking at regulatory features within mRNAs as well as the processes they recruit and mediate, with a particular focus on untranslated regions and poly(A) tails.

Publications

  • 07/2026 - BioRxiv

    Insulin synthesis is sustained by Tent5 poly(A) polymerases

    Insulin is an essential regulator of glucose homeostasis in vertebrates, and impairment of its synthesis or action leads to diabetes with severe health complications in humans. It is therefore essential to understand how beta cells control insulin synthesis and secretion, including the transcription, translation and decay of its messenger RNA. Using sequencing-based poly(A) tail length […]

    Read more
  • 01/2026 - BioRxiv

    Genome Architecture Shapes Transcriptional Responses to DNA Supercoiling in a Multicellular Organism

    DNA supercoiling is an intrinsic consequence of transcription that must be resolved to maintain proper gene expression. How DNA supercoiling shapes transcription dynamics in chromatinized animal genomes remains unclear. Here, we acutely depleted topoisomerases I and II in Caenorhabditis elegans and applied nascent transcription profiling, nuclear and total RNA-seq, histone modification mapping, and long-read sequencing […]

    Read more