Alternative splicing and genomic stability.
Alternative splicing allows an organism to make different proteins in different cells at different times, all from the same gene. In a cell that uses alternative splicing, the total length of all the exons is much shorter than in a cell that encodes the same set of proteins without alternative splicing. This economical use of exons makes genes more stable during reproduction and development because a genome with a shorter exon length is more resistant to harmful mutations. Genomic stability may be the reason why higher vertebrates splice alternatively. For a broad class of alternatively spliced genes, a formula is given for the increase in their stability.
Cahill
Kevin
K
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. cahill@unm.edu
D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical