Additional file 17: Figure S13. of The protein subunit of telomerase displays patterns of dynamic evolution and conservation across different metazoan taxa

TERT in Dugesiidae is alternatively spliced. Comparison of alternatively spliced (AS) variants in seven Dugesiidae species from the genera Schmidtea, Girardia and Dugesia. Structure of AS variants in S. mediterranea, S. lugubris, G. tigrina, D. japonica, D. ryukyuensis, D. benazzi and D. tahitientis. Full-length or wild-type TERT structure is shown at the top of each set of AS variants. Functional TERT domains (TRBD and RT) and positions of (putative) exons are indicated. Deletions (skipped exons) are denoted by triangles and insertions (retained introns or splice site mutations) are denoted by grey rectangles. ‘M’ abbreviations represent splice site mutations. Red triangles represent conserved alternatively spliced exons in all Dugesiidae species except S. mediterranea and D. tahitientis. Blue triangles represent conserved alternatively spliced exons in all Dugesiidae species except G. tigrina and D. japonica. Asterisks indicate stop codon positions caused by frame shift mutation or retained introns. The left margin shows TERT gene and AS variant names for each species and the right margin shows descriptive names of TERT AS sequences. Schematic diagrams on the far right illustrate the presence or absence of canonical motifs (QFP, T, 1, 2, A, B′, C, D and E) on TERT AS protein variants drawn to scale. (JPEG 1654 kb)