Final answer:
Splicing is controlled by exonic and intronic splicing enhancers that promote the process, and silencers that repress it. This results in alternative splicing, allowing a single gene to produce multiple protein variants. It plays a key role in eukaryotic gene regulation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Regulation of Splicing by Enhancers and Silencers
The process of splicing involves the removal of introns from the pre-mRNA transcript and the connection of exons to form a mature mRNA molecule. This process can be regulated by sequences known as exonic and intronic splicing enhancers and silencers.
Splicing enhancers are sequences that promote splicing at nearby splice sites, often by providing binding sites for specific proteins known as splicing factors.
Meanwhile, splicing silencers are sequences that repress splicing, typically by preventing the binding of splicing factors or by recruiting repressive proteins.
The interplay between enhancers and silencers, along with other regulatory elements, allows for alternative splicing, which is the production of different mRNA variants from the same pre-mRNA transcript.
This mechanism contributes to the diversity of proteins that can be produced by a single gene and is an important aspect of gene regulation in eukaryotic cells.