Exon shuffling

Exon Shuffling is a theory in which different exons either within a gene or between two nonallelic genes are occasionally mixed.

The process of exon shuffling can create a mosaic, or chimeric, protein that is partly built of domains or segments which are similar or identical to domains of other proteins. The mosaic protein is created when an exon from one gene is integrated into another gene's intron. Another kind of exon shuffling is when an exon is duplicated in the same gene.