Abstract
Intervening sequences interrupt most plant genes. The corresponding mRNA transcripts are required to go through the splicing pathway in order to get rid of the non-functional sequences. Alternative splicing (AS) has come in handy as an important post transcriptional tool that makes multiple mRNA products from single copy of precursor-mRNA molecule in eukaryotic organisms. Computational biology analyses have finally revealed that alternative splicing is not as less frequent in plants as it was thought originally. This mechanism is universal in almost all eukaryotic system for successful gene expression (e.g., plants, mammals, invertebrates etc.) that enhances or improves their coding capacity. The genes that encode functional proteins in a cell, are all spliced by several pathways, amongst which maximum are alternatively spliced. Here we present a brief discussion about the characteristics of various mRNA processing pathways with special reference to alternative splicing in leguminous plants, one of the elaborate and crucial plant families.
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Dass, R.S., Thorat, P., Mallick, R. (2021). Alternative RNA Splicing and Editing: A Functional Molecular Tool Directed to Successful Protein Synthesis in Plants. In: Guleria, P., Kumar, V., Lichtfouse, E. (eds) Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 51. Sustainable Agriculture Reviews, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68828-8_5
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