Editor's Summary

30 November 2006

There is an alternative

The alternative splicing process enables a single gene to produce multiple proteins. Now a new type of RNA map shows how the specific location of short snippets of RNA affects the way that alternative splicing is controlled in the brain. Alternative splicing is known to add a layer of complexity to brain processes, but exactly how it is regulated — and sometimes dysregulated to cause disease — has remained elusive. The map combines bioinformatics, biochemistry and genetics to determine a set of rules by which Nova genes regulate the splicing enhancer or silencer activity of the neuron-specific RNA binding protein Nova in mice. The results have implications for our understanding of brain functions such as learning and memory, neurological diseases and cancer biology.

Article: An RNA map predicting Nova-dependent splicing regulation

Jernej Ule, Giovanni Stefani, Aldo Mele, Matteo Ruggiu, Xuning Wang, Bahar Taneri, Terry Gaasterland, Benjamin J. Blencowe and Robert B. Darnell

doi:10.1038/nature05304

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,073K) | Supplementary information