DATE2025.09.23 #Press Releases
Discovery of Unconventional Intron Sequence Rules in Euglena
-A New Nucleotide Code for Gene Expression in Eukaryotes-
Summary
A joint research team led by Visiting Chief Scientist Toshihisa Nomura (Associate Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University) and Researcher Junsik Kim of the Bioinformatics for Bioproduction Research Team, Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN; Team Director Keiichi Mochida (Deputy Director of the Algal Biomass and Upcycling Research Team, RIKEN TRIP, Professor at the Faculty of Data Science, Nagasaki University, and Visiting Professor at the Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University); Professor Keisuke Goda (Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo); Executive Fellow Kengo Suzuki of Euglena Co., Ltd. (Team Director, Algal Biomass and Upcycling Research Team, RIKEN TRIP); Associate Professor Takuro Ito (Department of Creative Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College); and Professor Tetsuya Sakurai (Faculty of Agriculture and Marine Science, Kochi University), has revealed that Euglena (Japanese name: Midori-mushi) employs a large number of introns that follow entirely different sequence rules in addition to the conventional intron sequence rules widely observed in other eukaryotes during mRNA splicing, a process essential for gene expression.
This research provides the first molecular genetic evidence of an organism that harbors both conventional and unconventional introns. In combination with genome editing techniques that allow the introduction of synthetic introns, the findings are expected to open up new possibilities for controlling gene function and expression.
The results were published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) during the week of September 22, 2025.
Figure：Gene expression in eukaryotes and unconventional introns in the Euglena genome (created with BioRender).
Links
RIKEN, Euglena Co., Ltd., Yamagata University, National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College, Kochi University, Nagasaki University, Yokohama City University
Journals
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Journal name Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences（PNAS）Title of paper