BZIP intron animal explained

The bZIP intron animal is an unconventional bZIP intron in animals located in the mRNA of Xbp1 orthologs.^[1] The RNA structure consists of two hairpins of similar length with loop regions defining the splice sites. Intron is usually 23 or 26 nt long and it is excised by endoribonuclease Ire1 encoded by ERN1 gene in response to ER stress. The splicing mechanism in this group was first reported in human.^[2]

Notes and References

1. 10.4161/rna.8.4.15396. Hooks KB, Griffiths-Jones S . Conserved RNA structures in the non-canonical Hac1/Xbp1 intron . RNA Biol . 8 . 4 . 552–556 . 2011 . 21593604 . 3225973.
2. 10.1016/S0092-8674(01)00611-0 . Yoshida H, Matsui T, Yamamoto A, Okada T, Mori K . XBP1 mRNA is induced by ATF6 and spliced by IRE1 in response to ER stress to produce a highly active transcription factor . Cell . 107 . 7 . 881–891 . 2001 . 11779464 . free .