PLOS Genetics publication by MERIT team

Thomas Baier, Nick Jacobebbinghaus, Alexander Einhaus, Kyle J. Lauersen and Olaf Kruse published their results on Intron Mediated Enhancement (IME) of nuclear gene expression in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the journal PLOS Genetics.

In this work, several endo- and exogenous introns were systematically investigated and multiple sequences eliciting strong IME in C. reinhardtii were identified. Insertion into coding sequences were found to positively affect expression rates through a synergy of additive transcription enhancement and exon length reduction. Stimulating Introns were also found to be broadly applicable in different expression constructs and induced high protein accumulation in this alga.