What is the name of the process that removes introns from a pre-mRNA molecule?

RNA splicing removes introns from a pre-mRNA molecule and joins the remaining exons.

In eukaryotic cells, a newly transcribed pre-mRNA commonly contains coding or retained segments called exons and intervening sequences called introns. The spliceosome recognizes conserved boundary signals, removes each intron, and joins neighboring exons to create mature messenger RNA.

Alternative splicing allows one gene to produce multiple RNA and protein forms by combining exons in different patterns. This expands the functional output of genomes without requiring a separate gene for every protein variant.

Splicing is not the same as translation. Translation uses mature mRNA to build a protein, whereas splicing is an RNA-processing step that occurs before the mRNA is used by ribosomes. Errors in splicing can cause human disease.