◆Research findings by a group led by Professor Tetsuya Sakurai Faculty Interdisciplinary Sciences have been published in the online edition of the scientific journal *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)*
Release Date:
Elucidation of Non-Conventional Intron Sequence Rules in Euglena
– New Sequence Rules for Gene Expression in Eukaryotes –
[Overview]
A collaborative research group led by Professor Tetsuya Sakurai Faculty our university has revealed that in Euglena algae, mRNA splicing—a critical process in gene expression in eukaryotes—involves the simultaneous use of numerous introns that follow entirely different rules from those commonly observed in other eukaryotes.
This study represents the first molecular genetic demonstration of a species in which conventional and non-conventional introns coexist; it is expected that, when combined with the introduction of synthetic introns via genome editing, this discovery will enable applications such as the regulation of gene expression.
This study was published in the online edition of the scientific journal *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)* on September 23, 2025 (Japan Standard Time).
For more details, please visit the RIKEN .
[Paper Information]
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Article Title: Genetic dissection of nonconventional introns reveals co-dominant noncanonical splicing code in Euglena
Authors: Toshihisa Nomura, June-Sik Kim, Osamu Iwata, Koji Yamada, Kohei Atsuji, Yukiko Uehara-Yamaguchi, Takuhiro Yoshida, Komaki Inoue, Kotaro Takahagi, Tetsuya Sakurai, Kazuo Shinozaki, Takuro Ito, Kengo Suzuki, Keisuke Goda, and Keiichi Mochida