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Mechanisms of Regulated Pre-mRNA Splicing

  • Chapter
Pre-mRNA Processing

Part of the book series: Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit ((MBIU))

Abstract

Most messenger RNAs in higher eukaryotes are transcribed as precursors containing intervening sequences (introns). Introns are removed by a sophisticated processing machinery that splices together the sequences (exons) which form the mature mRNA (reviewed in chapters 3–5). Although the origin of introns is unclear, cells have learned to harness the splicing process to regulate gene expression. Retaining an intron or using alternative splice sites can be used to switch genes on or off, or to synthesize proteins with differences in their structural domains. The protein variants may differ in the presence or absence of a nuclear localization signal, a membrane attachment region, a phosphorylation site, a dimerization motif, a transcriptional activation domain, etc. These differences have important consequences for the functional properties of the protein, and even for the physiology and identity of the cell. A single alternative splicing decision can, for example, define the sex of flies, trigger programmed cell death or turn a nonmetastatic tumor into a malignant cancer. Table 6.1 summarizes some of these effects.

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Authors
  1. Juan Valcárcel
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  2. Ravinder Singh
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  3. Michael R. Green
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© 1995 R.G. Landes Company and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Valcárcel, J., Singh, R., Green, M.R. (1995). Mechanisms of Regulated Pre-mRNA Splicing. In: Pre-mRNA Processing. Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-22325-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-22325-3_6

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