Influences along the path to maturity: Regulation of cellular levels of RNA

Initiation of RNA transcription may be a rate-limiting step in gene expression but it is only the first of many regulatory processes that impinge on nascent RNA along its path to maturity. Discontinuity between gene expression patterns within the nucleus and the cytoplasm suggests that multiple post-transcription regulatory points greatly influence the final RNA product, even to the extent of dramatically shifting the gene targets identified as a defined regulatory response.