The haplo-spliceo-transcriptome: common variations in alternative splicing in the human population

Numerous inherited human genetic disorders are caused by defects in pre-mRNA splicing. Two recent studies have added a new twist to the link between genetic variation and pre-mRNA splicing by identifying SNPs that correlate with heritable changes in alternative splicing but do not cause disease. This suggests that allele-specific alternative splicing is a mechanism that accounts for individual variation in the human population.