True or false Support your answer The single Drosophila Dsca

True or false? Support your answer. The single Drosophila Dscam gene, which has the potential to produce more than 38,000 different proteins by alternative splicing, is as complex as the whole human genome.

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Solution

False.

The single Drosophila Dscam gene, which has the potential to produce more than 38,000 different proteins by alternative splicing, is more complex than the whole human genome.

The human genome contains only 20.000 - 25.000 genes (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 2004). The term “alternative splicing” describes any situation in which a single primary transcript (pre-mRNA) can be spliced in more than one pattern to generate multiple, distinct mature mRNAs leading to expression of protein isoforms with different structural and functional properties. The \"record-holder\" for alternative splicing is a Drosophila gene called Dscam, with 38,000 splice variants, more than the number of Drosophila genes. In humans at least 70% (and this proportion might be even higher!!) of the genes encode for transcripts that undergo alternative splicing, which underscores the importance of this regulatory mechanism in the biology of our species.