Aspectos evolutivos do splicing alternativo.

The eukaryotes present intricate mechanisms to control gene expression, as alternative splicing. This mechanism is abundant in these organisms and permits the prodution of different proteins from a single percursor. This revision intends to show how alternative splicing can be an interesting tool in studies of evolution, comprising how the mechanism appeared and how it acts in the diversification of organisms. Keywords. Alternative splicing, exons, EST, diversity.