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Title: What exactly is an intron? Post by: Plerion on Sep 14, 2012 I am coming across contradictory definitions; some say that introns are non-coding regions that are always removed before translation, others state that introns can encode RNA as well as proteins.My textbook even says that "entire genes have been found embedded within the introns of other genes".
Several sources state that self-splicing introns encode enzymes. This would mean that the common definition of an intron (a non-coding/not expressed region) is a misnomer. If an intron can be transcribed into mRNA, which may be translated into functional enzymes, they would also meet most definitions of exons and genes. This makes differentiating these terms confusing. Are any self-splicing introns present in eukaryotes? Also, do any introns encode proteins other than enzymes used for self-splicing? Thanks. Title: Re: What exactly is an intron? Post by: bio_man on Sep 16, 2012 Content hidden
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