What is gene splicing?

Genes are very important when it comes to organisms because they are the hereditary units that make up an individual. Cells have specific organelles that take the genes from the nucleus and use them to help build specific proteins for the organism. Gene splicing is the process of taking out part of the genetic information. Gene splicing occurs naturally inside eukaryotic cells during protein synthesis; some of the genetic information of mRNA is removed before translation.

Typically, the interns, or genetic information that is not expressed, are often spliced out and the exons, or the genetic information this is express, is left for the protein synthesis. When this occurs, new proteins can be made by the cells, adding diversity within an organism.

Gene splicing is also a process that scientists are using to make their own genetic codes for a particular organism. Although this process is quite new in the 21st century and is a little controversial, the hopes of using gene splicing within a laboratory is to help with gene therapy, such as removing any genes that may contribute to disease.

Credit: study.com