Article Text
Abstract
Variations in new splicing regulatory elements are difficult to identify exclusively by sequence inspection and may result in deleterious effects on precursor (pre) mRNA splicing. These mutations can result in either complete skipping of the exon, retention of the intron, or the introduction of a new splice site within an exon or intron. Sometimes mutations that do not disrupt or create a splice site activate pre-existing pseudo splice sites, consistent with the proposal that introns contain splicing inhibitory sequences. These variants can also affect the fine balance of isoforms produced by alternatively spliced exons and in consequence cause disease. Available genomic pathology data reveal that we are still partly ignorant of the basic mechanisms that underlie the pre-mRNA splicing process. The fact that human pathology can provide pointers to new modulatory elements of splicing should be exploited.
- ATM, ataxia telangiectasia
- CERES, composite exonic regulatory elements of splicing
- ESE, exonic splicing enhancers
- ESS, exonic splicing silencers
- hnRNPs, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins
- ISE, intronic splicing enhancers
- ISS, intronic splicing silencers
- NAS, nonsense altered splicing
- NF1, neurofibromatosis type 1
- NMD, nonsense mediated decay
- PTC, pretermination stop codon
- SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms
- SR, serine arginine
- UsnRNP, uridine-rich small ribonucleoproteins
- gene
- minigene
- mutation
- splicing
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- ATM, ataxia telangiectasia
- CERES, composite exonic regulatory elements of splicing
- ESE, exonic splicing enhancers
- ESS, exonic splicing silencers
- hnRNPs, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins
- ISE, intronic splicing enhancers
- ISS, intronic splicing silencers
- NAS, nonsense altered splicing
- NF1, neurofibromatosis type 1
- NMD, nonsense mediated decay
- PTC, pretermination stop codon
- SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms
- SR, serine arginine
- UsnRNP, uridine-rich small ribonucleoproteins
Footnotes
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Competing interests: none declared
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The numbers used to designate the mutations refer to the coding sequence of the NF1 gene (accession number NM 000267). The symbols + or – designate upstream or downstream, respectively.
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