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Archived Comments for: The leader intron of AtMHX can elicit, in the absence of splicing, low-level intron-mediated enhancement that depends on the internal intron sequence

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  1. Introns could also affect mRNA stability

    Deng-Ke Niu, Beijing Normal University

    9 August 2010

    In this paper, the authors said "Introns stimulate gene expression in a wide range of organisms by increasing the levels of mature mRNA, without affecting mRNA stability". Surely, early studies did not observe significant effect of introns on mRNA stability. Those studies were based on a small number of genes. Later genome-wide analyses have shown that the mRNAs of intron-containing genes are more stable than those of intronless genes (1,2). In addition, there is also a experimental study showing that introducing an intron to a gene could enhance its mRNA stability (3).

    1. Wang HF, Feng L and Niu DK (2007). Relationship between mRNA stability and intron presence. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 354: 203-208.

    2. Narsai R, Howell KA, Millar AH, O'Toole N, Small I and Whelan J (2007). Genome-wide analysis of mRNA decay rates and their determinants in Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Cell 19, 3418-3436.

    3. Zhao C and Hamilton T (2007). Introns regulate the rate of unstable mRNA decay. Journal of Biological Chemistry 282, 20230-20237.

    Competing interests

    No competing interests.

  2. Reply to the comment by Niu DK

    Orit Shaul, Bar-Ilan University

    28 May 2015

    The indicated sentence from Akua et al, 2010 [1] is part of the general Introduction and not part of the conclusions.

    The indicated sentence is the first sentence of the Abstract. In the Introduction, we wrote in a prudent manner "Introns enhance gene expression by increasing the steady-state amount of mature mRNA in the cell [2], apparently without significantly changing mRNA stability [3,4]." This introduction sentence was based on several experimental studies in plant and animal cells in which introduction of an intron was shown not to affect RNA stability (e.g., [3-5]). As indicated in the comment by Niu DK, apart from global genomic analyses which found a correlation between intron content and mRNA stability [6-7], there was at the time Akua et al, 2010 [1] was published only one experimental study that showed that stability of short-lived mRNAs could be increased by introns [8]. We referred in our Introduction sentence, in a prudent way ("apparently"), to the data that originated from most experimental studies that were available at that time. Again, this sentence is part of the general Introduction and not part of the conclusions of Akua et al, 2010 [1].

    1. Akua T, Berezin I, Shaul O. The leader intron of AtMHX can elicit, in the absence of splicing, low-level intron-mediated enhancement that depends on the internal intron sequence. BMC Plant Biol 2010, 10: 93.

    2. Callis J, Fromm M, Walbot V. Introns increase gene-expression in cultured maize cells. Genes Dev 1987, 1:1183-1200.

    3. Rethmeier N, Seurinck J, Van Montagu M, Cornelissen M. Intron-mediated enhancement of transgene expression in maize is a nuclear, gene-dependent process. Plant J 1997, 12:895-899.

    4. Nott A, Muslin SH, Moore MJ. A quantitative analysis of intron effects on mammalian gene expression. RNA 2003, 9:607-617.

    5. Chang CY, Hong WWL, Chong P, Wu SC. Influence of intron and exon splicing enhancers on mammalian cell expression of a truncated spike protein of SARS-CoV and its implication for subunit vaccine development. Vaccine 2006, 24:1132–1141.

    6. Wang HF, Feng L, Niu DK. Relationship between mRNA stability and intron presence. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2007, 354: 203-208.

    7. Narsai R, Howell KA, Millar AH, O'Toole N, Small I, Whelan J. Genome-wide analysis of mRNA decay rates and their determinants in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell 2007, 19:3418-3436.

    8. Zhao C, Hamilton T. Introns regulate the rate of unstable mRNA decay. J Biol Chem 2007, 282:20230-20237.

    Competing interests

    No competing interest.

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