Exon and intron

In the DNA sequence a gene coding content is distributed continuously over the gene but has discontinuities called introns, which sequencedoes not encode proteins. Parts of the sequence coding protein are the exons.

Upon transcription, the resulting mRNA is processed through a mechanism calledsplicingand introns are eliminated, resulting in a mature mRNA containing only the information of the exons.

Although in the past it was thought that each gene had a singlesplicingability and therefore resulted in a single protein, we now know that it produces the phenomenon of alternative splicing, when not all exons of the gene are present in the mature mRNA , giving rise to several different proteins according to the exons present in the final sequence.

Dr. Juan Sabater-TobellaEuropean Specialist in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EC4)Member of the Pharmacogenomics Research NetworkPresidente de EUGENOMIC®

Last modified: Nov 20, 2018 @ 5:26 pm