Abstract: Alternative splicing occurs after DNA is transcribed into precursor mRNA, and multiple mRNA isomers and protein subtypes can be produced from a single gene through this process, which increases the information diversity and protein abundance of genes during post-transcriptional processing. Spliceosomes, splicing factors and other RNA-binding proteins catalyse the recognition of splicing sites and alternative splicing exons, and participate in the regulation of alternative splicing. From the perspective of evolution, alternative splicing provides a driving force for biological evolution to some extent. As a tissue-specific regulator, alternative splicing is involved in the whole process of muscle development. During myoblast differentiation, polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB) and RNA-binding motif protein 4 (RNA-binding motif protein 4, RBM4) binds to the intron polypyrimidine sequence of tropomyosin and the CU-rich intron, respectively, and modulate the activity of muscle cell-specific exon selection of alpha-tropomyosin. RBM4 plays a synergistic role in the specific splicing of muscle cell proliferation and differentiation by down-regulating the expression of PTB and antagonizing the activity of PTB exon selection. Myosin Ⅰ subtype produces proteins of four different length lever arms through alternative splicing, which affect muscle tension and muscle stretching activation. Alternative splicing may be an important mechanism for the generation of muscle type specificity. Selective splicing produces myosin heavy chain isoforms with different catalytic kinetics, which regulate contractiity differently, thus affecting muscle fiber type and muscle function. By expounding the main roles of alternative splicing events in muscle development and muscle fiber formation, the author revealed the role of alternative splicing on muscle development, in the hope of providing a reference for the follow-up research on muscle development regulation mechanism.

Key words: alternative splicing; proliferation and differentiation; myosin; muscle fiber type