RNA splicing

In molecular biology and genetics, splicing is a modification of an RNA after transcription, in which introns are removed and exons are joined.

This is needed for the typical eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can be used to produce a correct protein through translation.

For many eukaryotic introns, splicing is done in a series of reactions which are catalyzed by the spliceosome, a complex of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), but there are also self-splicing introns.