Give a detailed explanation of how RNA splicing is accomplis

Give a detailed explanation of how RNA splicing is accomplished. Select a gene in development and compare two different isoforms of that gene and how each variant affects developmental processes.

Solution

The transcribed, RNA strand has introns that are removed and the exons that are attached to each other to make a continuous, shorter strand by the process; called RNA splicing. This splicing is accomplished with the help of spliceosomes, a mixture of protein and small RNA molecules; which remove introns from the genes in RNA. These introns separate the coding regions of the gene and allow different combinations of exons to be joined together leading to alternate splicing. Thus we get multi transcript genes i.e. a single gene coding for more than one protein. In humans, recent reports show that more than 98% of multi-exonic pre-mRNAs are alternatively spliced. E.g. expression of the Gcnt2 gene during embryogenesis is driven by three promoters.