alternative splicing

noun

variants: also alternative RNA splicing

Medical Definition of alternative splicing

: a mechanism in which different combinations of exons are joined together during the final stages of transcription so that more than one messenger RNA is produced from a single gene In complex genes, alternative splicing can generate dozens or even hundreds of different mRNA isoforms from a single transcript.— Vivien Marx, Genomics & Proteomics, May 2004

— called also differential splicing

Note: Alternative splicing produces different messenger RNAs especially through the removal of one or more exons. Since each messenger RNA produced forms a different protein product, this mechanism enables a gene to encode multiple proteins that are structurally and functionally distinct.