While recent studies have identified higher than anticipated heterogeneity of mutation rate across genomic regions, mutations in exons and introns are assumed to be generated at the same rate. Here we ...

In the genome, genes that code for protein are often divided into sections called exons, which are separated by spacers called introns. When a region of DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) or ...

Researchers have shown for the first time that non-coding parts of genes called introns can copy themselves and move around the genome. Nevertheless, these DNA sequences remain mysterious. Scientific ...

The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes could be far more important to the evolution of genomes than previously thought, according to researchers. Their study of the model organism Daphnia ...

Pre-mRNA splicing in a subset of human short introns is governed by a distinct mechanism involving a new splicing factor Protein-coding genes carry the blueprint for protein production. In higher ...

One of the most long-standing, fundamental mysteries of biology surrounds the poorly understood origins of introns. Introns are segments of noncoding DNA that must be removed from the genetic code ...

The interrupted non-coding regions in pre-mRNAs, termed “introns,” are excised by “splicing” to generate mature coding mRNAs that are translated into proteins. As human pre-mRNA introns vary in length ...

Researchers confirm that the established pre-mRNA splicing mechanism that appears in textbooks cannot work in a subset of human short introns: A novel SAP30BP–RBM17 complex-dependent splicing has been ...

Although you may not appreciate them, or have even heard of them, throughout your body, countless microscopic machines called spliceosomes are hard at work. As you sit and read, they are faithfully ...

Watching fruit flies buzz around the ripe bananas in your kitchen, you might think it’s a tad ludicrous, mortifying even, that humans have a similar number of genes—about 23,000—as the lowly insects.