◆Research findings by a group led by Professor Tetsuya Sakurai of the Interdisciplinary Science Division in the School of Integrated 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 of the Department of Interdisciplinary Sciences in the School of Integrated Sciences at our university has revealed that in mRNA splicing—a critical process in gene expression in eukaryotes—Euglena algae utilize numerous introns that follow entirely different rules, in addition to the sequence rules 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