Coupling and coordination in gene expression processes with pre-mRNA splicing.

RNA processing is a tightly regulated and highly complex pathway which includes transcription, splicing, editing, transportation, translation and degradation. It has been well-documented that splicing of RNA polymerase II medicated nascent transcripts occurs co-transcriptionally and is functionally coupled to other RNA processing. Recently, increasing experimental evidence indicated that pre-mRNA splicing influences RNA degradation and vice versa. In this review, we summarized the recent findings demonstrating the coupling of these two processes. In addition, we highlighted the importance of splicing in the production of intronic miRNA and circular RNAs, and hence the discovery of the novel mechanisms in the regulation of gene expression.