Abstract

In eukaryotic cells intron sequences are usually spliced out with a high degree of precision from heterogenous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) to give functional mRNA with exons in their right order. Provided with the right substrates, cell extracts can achieve the same. With exotic substrates, on the other hand, the same extracts can cut exons from one RNA and join them to exons from another RNA, a process termed trans‐splicing. In vivo, RNA trans‐splicing could lead to faulty, but also to novel proteins and, through reverse transcription, to genomic rearrangements. So far, in living cells trans‐splicing has only been invoked to occur in trypanosomes. In these unicellular organisms most if not all mRNAs are made discontinuously, so that the mature mRNAs carry, at their 5′ end, a common 35‐nucleotide sequence, called a miniexon, encoded separately in the genome. The miniexon is most likely joined to the body of the mRNA by trans‐splicing.