Abstract
The majority of metazoan genes encode pre-mRNAs that are subject to alternative splicing. For example, it has recently been estimated that as many as 74% of human genes encode alternatively spliced mRNAs (1). An alternatively spliced gene can generate anywhere from 2 different isoforms to as many as 38,016 isoforms in the case of the Drosophila Dscam gene (2). Thus, alternative splicing serves to greatly expand the diversity of the proteins encoded by a genome (3).
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References
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank members of the Graveley lab for discussions. This work was supported by NIH grants to B.R.G.
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© 2005 Humana Press Inc.
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Celotto, A.M., Lee, JW., Graveley, B.R. (2005). Exon-Specific RNA Interference. In: Carmichael, G.G. (eds) RNA Silencing. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 309. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-935-4:273
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-935-4:273
Publisher Name: Humana Press
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Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-935-6
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