Fig. 3.
Theoretical model showing how the action of splicing factors might regulate the expression of e37a in different neurons. A putative splicing repressor (orange) binds to e37a sequence in CaV2.2 pre-mRNA preventing its inclusion during alternative pre-mRNA splicing. The putative splicing repressor is expressed in most neurons except in nociceptors and other neurons that express e37a. In the absence of the splicing repressor, e37a and e37b are equally likely to be included during pre-mRNA splicing. The model is based on data published in [86]. When e37a is moved to the e37b position, e37a is repressed consistent with the presence of an exonic repressor element [86]. When e37b is moved to the e37a position, it is expressed at wild-type levels inconsistent with the presence of a repressor element that resides exclusively in the intron [86].