Alternative splicing

<p>Alternative splicing, alternative RNA splicing, or differential splicing, is an alternative <a href="/facts/RNA_splicing/a2QEvCRI">splicing</a> process during gene expression that allows a single gene to produce different splice variants. For example, some exons of a gene may be included within or excluded from the final <a href="/facts/RNA/HxPeNfNj">RNA</a> product of the gene. This means the exons are joined in different combinations, leading to different splice variants. In the case of protein-coding genes, the proteins translated from these splice variants may contain differences in their amino acid sequence and in their biological functions (see Figure).
</p><p>Biologically relevant alternative splicing occurs as a normal phenomenon in <a href="/facts/Eukaryote/SkwyPLMA">eukaryotes</a>, where it increases the number of proteins that can be encoded by the genome. In humans, it is widely believed that ~95% of multi-exonic genes are alternatively spliced to produce functional alternative products from the same gene but many scientists believe that most of the observed splice variants are due to splicing errors and the actual number of biologically relevant alternatively spliced genes is much lower.
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Alternative splicing open-in-new

Alternative splicing