Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Genes Dev. 2010 Nov 1;24(21):2343-64. doi: 10.1101/gad.1973010.
Alternative splicing of mRNA precursors is a nearly ubiquitous and extremely flexible point of gene control in humans. It provides cells with the opportunity to create protein isoforms of differing, even opposing, functions from a single gene. Cancer cells often take advantage of this flexibility to produce proteins that promote growth and survival. Many of the isoforms produced in this manner are developmentally regulated and are preferentially re-expressed in tumors. Emerging insights into this process indicate that pathways that are frequently deregulated in cancer often play important roles in promoting aberrant splicing, which in turn contributes to all aspects of tumor biology.
mRNA 前体的选择性剪接是人类基因调控中几乎普遍存在且极其灵活的一个点。它为细胞提供了从单个基因中产生具有不同甚至相反功能的蛋白质同工型的机会。癌细胞通常利用这种灵活性来产生促进生长和存活的蛋白质。以这种方式产生的同工型中有许多是发育调控的，并在肿瘤中优先重新表达。对这一过程的新认识表明，在癌症中经常失调的途径通常在促进异常剪接中发挥重要作用，而异常剪接反过来又有助于肿瘤生物学的各个方面。
