Plants manage RNA quality control differently than animals, new study finds
Sun K, Zhao F, Huang S, Tan Y, Chang Y
Plant Signaling
The molecular machinery that decides which of a plant's genes get read correctly and which get discarded is wired differently than in animals, meaning discoveries about plant gene regulation can't simply be borrowed from human biology and may open unique doors for breeding more resilient crops.
Every plant cell has to carefully manage the instructions it copies from its DNA, including catching and destroying faulty copies before they cause problems. Scientists discovered that a protein complex in the thale cress plant that helps with this cleanup job works differently than the version found in animals. Notably, the plant can still destroy bad genetic messages even without a molecular tag that animals rely on, suggesting plants evolved their own shortcuts for this process.
Key Findings
eIF4AIII, the RNA-binding core of the plant EJC, deposits at the -25 to -30 nucleotide position upstream of exon-exon junctions in a splicing-dependent manner, consistent with animal models but confirmed here in plants for the first time.
Knocking down eIF4AIII caused widespread intron-retention events and implicated the EJC in both RNA splicing and RNA decay pathways in Arabidopsis.
CRISPR-induced premature stop codons triggered nonsense-mediated RNA decay independently of eIF4AIII, even when the EJC was positioned downstream of the stop codon, showing the EJC is not required for NMD in plants.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers mapped how a key molecular complex called the exon-junction complex (EJC) binds RNA in the model plant Arabidopsis, finding it plays roles in controlling gene splicing and RNA degradation. Surprisingly, one of the plant's main RNA quality-control pathways can work without the EJC, unlike in animals.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The RNA-binding dynamics of the exon-junction complex underlying splicing-coupled RNA fate determination in Arabidopsis.
The exon-junction complex represents a hallmark of protein-RNA packaging that is coupled with co-transcriptional RNA processing and influences the subsequent fate of RNA. Although being extensively...
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Arabidopsis thaliana, the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally considered a weed.