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The number of splice variants in a species correlates inversely with the population size - what does that mean?

Most of the genes in eukaryotes contain introns that are removed by Splicing during processing of the primary transcript. In some cases the gene produces two different functional RNAs due to differential splicing of the introns. If the product is mRNA then two different versions of the protein can be made as shown in the figure from my book What's in Your Genome? This mechanism is known as alternative splicing.

True alternative splicing is rare—less than 5% of all genes are alternatively spliced.1 However, when you analyze all of the transcripts in a tissue you will invariably detect many transcripts from junk DNA and many low abundance splice variants. Those transcripts and splice variants are due to transcription errors and splicing errors. Splicing errors arise from the presence of weak splice sites that are occasionally recognized by the normal spliceosome or by the splice factors responsible for true alternative splicing.

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This post first appeared on Sandwalk, please read the originial post: here

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The number of splice variants in a species correlates inversely with the population size - what does that mean?

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