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An intron is a segment of a nucleic acid, such as DNA or RNA, that does not contain information for protein synthesis. In eukaryotic genes, coding sequences, called exons, are often separated by noncoding regions known as introns. After transcription, these introns are removed, and the exons are joined together in a process called RNA splicing. This splicing is carried out by a complex molecular machinery called a spliceosome. The discovery of introns and exons was made independently in the 1970s by Richard J. Roberts and Phillip A. Sharp.12

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