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Alternative splicing allows cells to glitch genetic information into different formation, similar to the role of film editors who can change the story with a few cuts.  With the help of alternative splicing a single gene can produce up to thousands of different proteins. 

The process of alternative splicing can now be observed, according to Harvard scientists. 

Researchers using genetic tools to implant genes that produce fluorescent proteins in the DNA of transparent C. elegans worms, collected hard evidence that the alternative  splicing process frequently works differently in different types of neurons. 

"Splicing is an essential process in gene regulation that happens in most eukaryotic cells, all the time," John Calarco, a Bauer Fellow at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology, said in the press release. "It's a fundamental part of how eukaryotic genes produce proteins, but when it goes wrong, it can lead to any number of diseases, including in the nervous system."

On the surface, the splicing process is simpler, explained Calarco. 

"To manufacture a particular protein, DNA is first transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA). But while that transcription contains the instructions to code for a protein, it also contains noncoding segments. Once those segments are removed, the remaining genetic information must be stitched back together, with different combinations producing different proteins," the press release added. 

For long scientists pondered whether closely related cell types frequently used the process to produce distinct proteins from the same genetic building blocks. 

"We were interested in looking at how splicing might be different in one type of neuron versus a different type of neuron," said postdoctoral researcher Adam Norris. "We didn't know whether that was often going to be true going in, so we were looking for indicators that that might be happening."

The process has been detailed in a paper published in the journal Molecular Cell.