Fig. 1.

Schematic of AR protein synthesis. A The AR pre-mRNA, including eight exons and several introns, is generated from AR gene. B By constitutive splicing, all introns would be removed by multiple splicing factors, and mature AR mRNA containing eight exons is then produced. After mRNA being transferred into cytoplasm, the AR translation starts from exon 1 to exon 8. However, both exon 1 and exon 8 are not entirely utilised during the translation (the start point and end point were indicated in the graph). C The eight exons code for four distinct protein domains. Exon 1 codes for the NTD, exons 2 and 3 code for the DBD, exon 4 codes for the HD, and exons 4–8 code for the LBD (By Figdraw ID: AUWOY79b2a)