The alternative splicing of SKU5-Similar3 in Arabidopsis.

Alternative splicing largely enhanced the diversity of transcriptome and proteome in eukaryas. Along with technological development, more and more genes are reported to be alternatively spliced during mRNA maturation. Here, I report the alternative splicing of SKU5-Similar 3 (SKS3) and its special splicing site in Arabidopsis. SKS3 was predicted to be alternatively transcribed into two variants, SKS3.1 and SKS3.2, which encoded a GPI-anchored protein and a soluble secretory protein, respectively. But, according to experimental data, instead of SKS3.2, a novel variant, SKS3.3, which encodes a protein with a transmembrane region at its C-terminus, was demonstrated. Interestingly, it exhibites a different organ-specific expression pattern with SKS3.1, and an unusual intron splicing site not following 'GT-AG' rule or any reported rule.