Regulation of splicing is highly complex and especially so in the nervous system with protein products being primary influences in learning and memory as well as being responsible for cell communication and neural development. Misregulation of splicing has been speculated to be responsible for the development of cancers and tumors. Schematic of Amphiphysin II Alternative Splicing.
Exons appear as boxes and introns appear as lines.
In this project, the in vivo splicing patterns of amphiphysin II in Rattus Muridae tissue were studied using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Brain region specific variations in exon 12 splicing are also evident. Research in progress involves the analysis of amphiphysin II alternative splicing in neurological mutant mice to identify factors involved in these genetic networks and their effects on the mammalian nervous system.