Study of molecular mechanism of the ER quality control in plants

如果具有异常结构的蛋白质在称为内质网（ER）的细胞内隔室中积累，则这种情况被传递到细胞核，导致分子伴侣基因的激活，从而帮助蛋白质的正确折叠。我们发现，定位在ER膜上的传感器蛋白IRE1参与细胞质剪接，这是植物细胞质剪接的首次报道。据认为，膜结合转录因子bZIP 60通过剪接转变为失去其跨膜结构域的活性形式，并易位到核中激活靶基因。

If proteins with abnormal structures accumulate in the intracellular compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), such condition is transmitted to the nucleus causing activation of genes for chaperones that assist the correct folding of proteins. We found that a sensor protein IRE1 localizing on the ER membrane is involved in cytoplasmic splicing as the first report of cytoplasmic splicing in plants. It was considered that a membrane bound transcription factor bZIP60 was converted to active form losing its transmembrane domain by the splicing and translocated to the nucleus activating target genes.