Assessing the adaptive significance of alternative gene splicing using a phylogenetic approach

遗传信息以DNA的形式存储在细胞中，细胞无法直接访问。相反，DNA信息要经过广泛的、多步骤的处理，然后才能被用来指导细胞功能。其中一个过程--选择性信使核糖核酸剪接--不仅传递遗传信息，而且通过从同一基因产生多个选择性遗传信息来增强遗传信息。细胞扩展了相当数量的资源来产生这些替代信息，虽然其中一些对于细胞的正常功能和发育是必不可少的，但其他信息的意义是一个巨大辩论的主题，因为它们在细胞中的功能尚不清楚。选择性剪接是一个极其低效的过程，是一个错综复杂的监管过程，还是一种强大的进化机制？这些问题的答案对遗传信息如何组织和进化有着重要的影响。

Genetic information is stored in the cell in the form of DNA, which the cell cannot access directly. Instead, DNA information undergoes extensive, multi-step processing before it can be acted upon to direct cellular functions. One of these processes, alternative mRNA splicing, not only transmits genetic information but also enhances it by generating multiple alternative genetic messages from the same gene. The cell expands considerable amount of resources to generate these alternative messages and while some are essential for the proper functioning and development of the cell, the significance of others is a subject of great debate, since their function in the cell is unclear. Is alternative splicing an extravagantly inefficient process, an intricately complex regulatory process, or a powerful evolutionary mechanism? The answer to these questions have important implications about how genetic information is organized and evolves.