Important Question about RNA processing

[Eshi]

I had a question about how the RNA processing occurs. I know that the RNA is transcribed off the DNA, and then the introns are removed(sometimes in different orders), and then the capping occurs. My question is whether or not different segments of RNA can fuse together before during the processing. My idea is that you have all these RNA segments, and say apart of the RNA becomes interacted with another, which is possible. So with this complex say part of the RNA breaks, and maybe a ligase comes and recombines the RNA. In essence your final product is an mRNA that is made from multiple genes.

Is this possible?

 

[Moonbear]

You wouldn't get an RNA made from multiple genes, but when the introns are removed, you can get something called alternative splicing that involves only some of the exons joining together, or an intron being retain. That will result in different proteins being translated.

There's a simple illustration of this at this site:
http://www.premierbiosoft.com/tech_notes/gene-splicing.html
It's a commercial site, and I'm not endorsing any product at that site, just they happen to have an easy to understand illustration on that page. You can also look up altnernative splicing in your textbook and see if it is explained further there.