[ensembl-dev] Genes, transcripts and exons and mRNA

[Allan Kamau]

Hi,
I am trying to reconstruct messenger RNA sequences (in DNA format)
using transcript and exon data obtained using ensembl API.
I have read on the Ensembl API documentation that transcripts are
groups of exons and (protein based) genes are groups of transcripts,
and that these transcripts may be overlapping (within a given Gene)
and that exons may also overlap.

So for a given gene, I am trying to flatten out it's exons by using
their start and end positions. I have noticed that some exons from
different transcripts may have the same start position but different
end positions, or different start positions and same end position or
that these exons may have the identical start and end positions.

Should I make use of the longer exons (and ignore the shorter ones)
when there are more than one exon for a given region for the same
gene?

Is my overall understanding and approach to reconstruction of message
RNA correct?

Allan.