Published On:Feb 05,2018
In molecular biology, splicing is the editing of the nascent precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) transcript into a mature messenger RNA (mRNA). After splicing, introns are removed and exons are joined together (ligated).
For nuclear-encoded genes, splicing takes place within the nucleus either during or immediately after transcription. For those eukaryotic genes that contain introns, splicing is usually required in order to create a mRNA molecule that can be translated into protein.
For many eukaryotic introns, splicing is carried out in a series of reactions which are catalyzed by the spliceosome, a complex of snRNPs. Self-splicing introns, or ribozymes capable of catalyzing their own excision from their parent RNA molecule, also exist.