Apparent discontinuous transcription of Trypanosoma brucei variant surface antigen genes

Abstract
The repeated mini-exon sequence that encodes the first 35 base pairs of all variant surface antigen mRNAs of T. brucei directs the synthesis of a discrete 137-nucleotide transcript. Variant surface antigen mRNAs are transcribed discontinuously and 2 alternative models for how this might occur are presented.