What is RNA splicing and when does it occur?
RNA splicing is a crucial process that plays an essential role in the maturation of
RNA. It is a process that involves the removal of certain parts of RNA molecules
which do not contain any useful genetic information. The introns are edited out via
RNA splicing and the extrons or protein-coding portion of RNA are left in place to be
translated to a protein molecule.
RNA splicing takes place inside the nucleus of the cell, and it is carried out by
ribonucleoprotein complexes such as the spliceosome. The spliceosome is a
complex which consists of several molecules and plays a role in processing the premRNA molecules before they are turned into proteins. It inspects the RNA molecule
for introns, cuts them out and then binds the extrons together to create a continuous,
uninterrupted RNA molecule that can be used to create a protein.
RNA splicing plays an essential role in regulating gene expression because it allows
a single gene to produce multiple proteins by selectively removing different subsets
of introns. This enables one gene to perform multiple functions via alternative
splicing, making RNA splicing a crucial step in the production of proteins.
References:
Zhang, C., & Zhang, Z. (2020). RNA Splicing and Its Regulation: An Overview. Springer
Nature.
Wang, E. T., Sandberg, R., Luo, S., et al. (2008). Alternative isoform regulation in human
tissue transcriptomes. Nature, 456, 470–476.
Licatalosi, D. D., & Darnell, R. B. (2010). RNA processing and its regulation: Global insights
into biological networks. Nature Reviews Genetics, 11, 75–87.