Splicing

Definition

Splicing in the context of protein synthesis is a process where introns (non-coding regions) are removed from pre-mRNA and exons (coding regions) are joined together to form a mature mRNA molecule. This modified mRNA is then used as a template for protein synthesis.

Related terms

Intron: A non-coding segment of DNA or RNA that is removed during RNA splicing to produce mature messenger RNA.

Exon: A segment of DNA or RNA containing information coding for a protein or peptide sequence; exons are kept and joined together during splicing.

mRNA (Messenger RNA): A type of RNA that conveys genetic information from DNA to the ribosome, where it specifies the amino acid sequence of the protein products of gene expression