Alternative splicing regulation and cell lineage differentiation

The alternative splicing of precursor mRNA is an essential mechanism for protein diversity. It plays important biological roles, such as proliferation, differentiation and development of cells. Furthermore, alternative splicing participates in the pathogenesis of diseases, including cancer. Thus, in-depth understanding of splicing regulation is of great significance. Regulation of alternative splicing is an extraordinary complicated process in which several signal molecules are at work. Besides the cis-elements and trans-factors, several lines of evidences suggest that other molecules, structures or process also regulate splicing, such as RNA structures, transcription and transcription factors, chromatin and protein. Meanwhile, increasing body of evidence shows that alternative splicing correlated closely to stem cell lineage differentiation. It means that there is a fundamental role for splicing in controlling regulatory program required for cell lineage differentiation. This review systematically sums up the regulation of alternative splicing and summarizes the splicing events during cell lineage differentiation of stem cells.