Splicing regulation in brain and testis: common themes for highly specialized organs

ABSTRACT

Expansion of the coding and regulatory capabilities of eukaryotic transcriptomes by alternative splicing represents one of the evolutionary forces underlying the increased structural complexity of metazoans. Brain and testes stand out as the organs that mostly exploit the potential of alternative splicing, thereby expressing the largest repertoire of splice variants. Herein, we will review organ-specific as well as common mechanisms underlying the high transcriptome complexity of these organs and discuss the impact exerted by this widespread alternative splicing regulation on the functionality and differentiation of brain and testicular cells.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain
• testis
• neuron differentiation
• spermatogenesis
• alternative splicing
• transcriptomics

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Donatella Farini for critical discussions. C.N. was supported by a fellowship from Fondazione Umberto Veronesi.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro [IG23416]; Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università [PRIN 2017 2017P352]. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore contributed to the funding of this research project and its publication.