The Role of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Transducer Ire1 during Photoreceptor Differentiation in Drosophila

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology.

The accumulation of misfolded proteins in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) causes ER stress and activates a homeostatic mechanism termed the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). The most conserved arm of the UPR is mediated by the ER transmembrane protein Ire1 that removes an unconventional intron from Xbp1 mRNA upon ER stress. Xbp1spliced is an effective transcription factor that up-regulates ER chaperones and enzymes.(...)