Question

in the plant verbosa vulgaris the pre-mrna (before edits) product is 5000 nucleotides long. from this it produces 5 different proteins. how is this possible? explain the process that verbosa is using to produce 5 different proteins from the same 5000 base pair message.

Answer 1

The plant Verbosa vulgaris can produce 5 different proteins from the same pre-mRNA molecule through the process of alternative splicing, which allows for different combinations and sequences of exons—coding regions—to result in unique proteins.

Step-by-step explanation:

The plant Verbosa vulgaris can produce 5 different proteins from a pre-mRNA of 5000 nucleotides because of a process called alternative splicing.

During this process, the pre-mRNA undergoes several modifications: it is coated with RNA-stabilizing proteins, it has a 5' methylguanosine cap and a poly-A tail added, and it undergoes splicing where introns are removed and exons are reconnected.

Alternative splicing allows exons to be reassembled in different combinations to produce multiple unique mRNA sequences that code for different proteins.

This is possible because each exon has the potential to encode a portion of the protein, and by rearranging the order or choosing different combinations of exons, different proteins can be produced from the same initial RNA transcript. The mature mRNA, protected by its modifications and now lacking introns, is then exported to the cytoplasm.

Once in the cytoplasm, it is translated into a protein. The sequence of amino acids in each protein determines its structure and function, and because alternative splicing can create different sequences, it leads to the production of different proteins.