Split Genes and RNA Splicing

作者：Francis Harry Compton Crick · 发表于：Science · 年份：1979 · DOI：10.1126/science.373120 · 被引用次数：474 · 研究领域：Plant Virus Research Studies、RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms、Bacteriophages and microbial interactions

A number of genes in higher organisms and in their viruses appear to be split. That is, they have "nonsense" stretches of DNA interspersed within the sense DNA. The cell produces a full RNA transcript of this DNA, nonsense and all, and then appears to splice out the nonsense sequences before sending the RNA to the cytoplasm. In this article what is known about these intervening sequences and about the processing of the RNA is outlined. Also discussed is their possible use and how they might have arisen in evolution.