Exon skipping is the most common form of alternative splicing, in which intervals located on a molecule of pre-mRNA that normally serve as exons of a gene are excised along with introns during the formation of a final mRNA.
As a result of exon skipping, differing mRNA molecules will translate into similar but slightly different proteins, called isoforms.
The figure below shows a very basic example of exon skipping. The path connecting exons along the bottom of the figure includes all three exons, whereas the path along the top of the figure skips the middle (yellow) exon.
