Salt & splice: DGCR14L, a new player in mRNA splicing

Abstract

How is a cell fine-tuned for viability under different circumstances? Cells can generate protein diversity, which allows a broader range of responses, through alternative splicing (AS). AS modulates the active and non-active form of proteins under abiotic stresses such as salt stress. Overexpression of splicing factors regulates AS and provides salt stress tolerance to plants (Cui et al., 2014; Gu et al., 2018). Arabidopsis DIGEORGE-SYNDROME CRITICAL REGION 14-like (DGCR14L) plays a role in pre-mRNA splicing similar to its human orthologs (Kanno et al., 2020). In humans, DGCR14 interacts with the proteins of the spliceosome complex (Takada et al., 2018). However, in plants, the underlying mechanism of DGCR14L and its role in salt stress is largely unexplored.