RELATED RESEARCH IN THE FAIRBROTHER LAB

Terms:

• exon: segment of a DNA or RNA molecule with coding information

• intron: segment of a DNA or RNA molecule that does not code for proteins and interrupts the sequence of genes

• RNA splicing: process by which introns are removed and exons are joined together

• wildtype: normal (non-disease) form of a gene

• mutant: disease form of a gene

• in vivo: performed or taking place in living cells

• in vitro: performed or taking place outside living cells

• minigene: an artificial gene

• reverse transcriptase: an enzyme that converts RNA to cDNA

• CMV promoter: a signal to indicate where to start transcribing a gene

• Poly A signal: a signal to terminate the transcription of a gene

The exons code for the expression of genes whereas the introns are not read in the translation from RNA to mRNA because of their lack of gene coding information.