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Alternative splicing and disease
Eddo Kim, Amir Goren and Gil Ast
volume 5 | issue 1
january/february/march 2008Subscribe to this journal for $59/year
Splicing is a molecular mechanism, by which introns are removed from an mRNA precursor and exons are ligated to form a mature mRNA. Mutations that cause defects in the splicing mechanism are known to be responsible for many diseases, including cystic fibrosis and familial dysautonomia. If mutations that cause defects in splicing are responsible for such severe deleterious phenotypic differences, it is possible that mutations in splicing are also responsible for mildly deleterious phenotypic differences. Although deleterious mutations are rapidly eliminated from the population by purifying selection, the selection against mild deleterious effects is not as strong. Since mildly deleterious mutations have a chance of surviving natural selection, we might be mistakenly referring to these mutations as neutral variation between individuals. Splicing has also been shown to be seriously affected in cancer. Examination of cancerous tissues revealed alterations in expression levels of genes involved in mRNA processing and also a slight reduction in the level of exon skipping — the most common form of alternative splicing in humans. This implies that defects in genes involved in the regulation of splicing in cancerous tissues affect the delicate regulation of the inclusion level of alternatively skipped exons, shifting their mode of splicing back to constitutive. It may be that splicing silencers play a more prominent role in alternative splicing regulation than previously anticipated.
Authors
Eddo Kim
Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry; Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Tel-Aviv University; Ramat Aviv, Israel
Amir Goren
Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry; Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Tel-Aviv University; Ramat Aviv, Israel
Gil Ast
Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry; Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Tel-Aviv University; Ramat Aviv, Israel