Final answer:
A cell can generate multiple proteins from a single gene by differentially removing introns from pre-mRNA during splicing, which allows for various exon combinations to be translated.
Step-by-step explanation:
One way that a cell can produce many proteins from few genes is by removing different combinations of introns from an mRNA molecule. During the process of splicing, introns are cut out and exons are joined together. This can lead to the production of different proteins from the same gene through a process known as alternative splicing. Since introns do not encode for functional proteins, removing them in various combinations allows the cell to generate diverse proteins from a single gene by rearranging the remaining exons in different ways.
Eukaryotic genes are composed of coding sequences called exons and intervening sequences called introns. Introns are removed from the pre-mRNA during processing, while exons make up the protein-coding regions. It is important to remove introns accurately to ensure the correct amino acids are coded by the exons. This process of removing introns and reconnecting exons is called splicing.