English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Gene expression in eukaryotes is often enhanced by the presence of introns. Depending on the specific gene, this enhancement can be minor or very large and occurs at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. The  Arabidopsis ERECTA  gene contains 27 exons encoding a receptor-like kinase that promotes cell proliferation and inhibits cell differentiation in above-ground plant organs. The expression of  ERECTA  very strongly depends on the presence of introns. The intronless  ERECTA  gene does not rescue the phenotype of  erecta  mutant plants and produces about 500–900 times less protein compared with the identical construct containing introns. This result is somewhat surprising as the region upstream of the  ERECTA  coding sequence effectively promotes the expression of extraneous genes. Here, we demonstrate that introns are essential for  ERECTA  mRNA accumulation and, to a lesser extent, for mRNA utilization in translation. Since mRNA produced by intronless  ERECTA  is degraded at the 3′ end, we speculate that introns increase mRNA accumulation through increasing its stability at least in part. No individual intron is absolutely necessary for  ERECTA  expression, but rather multiple introns in specific locations increase  ERECTA  expression in an additive manner. The ability of introns to promote  ERECTA  expression might be linked to the process of splicing and not to a particular intron sequence.

The presence of multiple introns is essential for ERECTA expression in Arabidopsis