Cover image
Cover Transcription-Induced Chimeras (TICs) is a phenomenon that increases transcript and protein diversity in the human genome. Two consecutive genes are transcribed into a single pre-mRNA. Following splicing, the intergenic region is removed as an intron (upper right) and a chimeric mature mRNA is formed. This mRNA may be translated into a fused protein (lower left). The background figure is the mythological Chimera with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. (Cover art by Tali Cotter and Pinchas Akiva. [For details, see Akiva et al., pp. 30-36 and Parra et al., pp. 37-44.])
