What is "exon shuffling"

n. (context genetics English) The proposed mixing of different exons either within a gene or between two nonallelic genes.

Exon shuffling is a molecular mechanism for the formation of new genes. It is a process through which two or more exons from different genes can be brought together ectopically, or the same exon can be duplicated, to create a new exon-intron structure. There are different mechanisms through which exon shuffling occurs: transposon mediated exon shuffling, crossover during sexual recombination of parental genomes and illegitimate recombination. Exon shuffling follows certain splice frame rules. Introns can interrupt the reading frame of a gene by inserting a sequence between two consecutive codons (phase 0 introns), between the first and second nucleotide of a codon (phase 1 introns), or between the second and third nucleotide of a codon (phase 2 introns). Additionally exons can be classified into nine different groups based on the phase of the flanking introns (symmetrical: 0-0, 1-1, 2-2 and asymmetrical: 0-1, 0-2, 1-0, 1-2, etc.) Symmetric exons are the only ones that can be inserted into introns, undergo duplication, or be deleted without changing the reading frame.