Xenopus as a model to study alternative splicing in vivo

An increasing number of genes are being identified for which the corresponding mRNAs contain different combinations of the encoded exons. This highly regulated exon choice, or alternative splicing, is often tissue-specific and potentially could differentially affect cellular functions. Alternative splicing is therefore not only a means to increase the coding capacity of the genome, but also to regulate gene expression during differentiation or development. To both evaluate the importance for cellular functions and define the regulatory pathways of alternative splicing, it is necessary to progress from the in vitro or ex vivo experimental models actually used towards in vivo whole-animal studies. We present here the amphibian, Xenopus, as an experimental model highly amenable for such studies. The various experimental approaches that can be used with Xenopus oocytes and embryos to characterize regulatory sequence elements and factors are presented and the advantages and drawbacks of these approaches are discussed. Finally, the real possibilities for large-scale identification of mRNAs containing alternatively spliced exons, the tissue-specific patterns of exon usage and the way in which these patterns are modified by perturbing the relative amount of splicing factors are discussed.