Table 2.

Examples of functionally relevant alternative splicing events

Gene*	Description	Reference
Drosophila melanogaster
Dscam	Alternative splicing has the potential to generate 19,008 extracellular domains that show isoform-specific homophilic binding, regulating neural wiring and immune-system interactions with pathogens†	76
fru	Sex-specific splicing controls courtship behaviour	77
Nurf301 (E(bx))	Alternative splicing generates three protein isoforms, each of which assembles into a functionally distinct form of the chromatin-remodelling complex NURF	78
Caenorhabditis elegans
egl-15	Mutually exclusive splicing generates two isoforms of a growth factor with distinct ligand specificities	79
fbl-1	Alternative splicing generates two isoforms of a basement-membrane protein that have distinct but complementary roles in tissue assembly and organization	80
unc-60	Alternative splicing generates two isoforms of actin-depolymerizing factor (cofilin) that have distinct actin-filament-severing activities	81
Homo sapiens
NLGN1	Alternative splicing modulates the interactions between the neuronal synaptic cell-adhesion molecules neuroligin 1 and neurexins	82
SLACK (KCNT1)	Alternative splicing alters the amino-terminal domain of SLACK isoforms, regulating interactions with SLICK to form a heteromeric sodium-activated potassium channel	83
Mus musculus
Snap25	Alternative splicing generates two protein isoforms that differ in their ability to stabilize synaptic vesicles in the primed state	84

^*Synonyms are listed in parentheses.

^†There are 19,008 combinations of the extracellular portion (encoded by exons 4, 6 and 9) and two transmembrane domains encoded by the two variants of exon 17, making 38,016 isoforms.