One of the central questions in cell biology is how proteins are sorted to particular regions of the cell. One mechanism for localizing cytoplasmic proteins is to transport the mRNA encoding the protein to the desired location so that the synthesis of the protein is spatially restricted to a particular cytoplasmic region. Establishment of these domains is often further enhanced by a translational control mechanism that ensures translation only of properly targeted messages. Recent whole genome surveys in Drosophila have found that greater than 70% of mRNAs are localized to discrete subcellular locations. This diverse set of intracellular destinations for mRNAs suggests that specific localization complexes must exist to transport these messages to their appropriate destinations and that mRNA localization plays a role in a wide variety of cell biological processes. Our long-term goal is to define key localization complexes responsible for this array of patterns, to identify critical associated mRNAs, and to elucidate how mRNA localization is used to regulate particular cell biological processes.

To accomplish this goal we have combined biochemical approaches, genetic analysis, functional genomics, and live imaging to systematically identify novel mRNA localization events and the biochemical complexes that mediate them.