Additional file 18: Figure S14. of The protein subunit of telomerase displays patterns of dynamic evolution and conservation across different metazoan taxa

TERT in Planariidae and Dendrocoelidae but not Procerodidae is alternatively spliced. Comparison of AS variants in two Planariidae species from the genus Polycelis, one Dendrocoelidae species and one Procerodidae species. Structure of AS variants in (A) Planariidae P. felina and P. nigra, (B) Dendrocoelidae D. lacteum and (C) Procerodidae P. plebeja. Genomic sequence data is not available for these flatworm species. Therefore, putative TERT exon-intron boundaries were annotated based on Smed_TERT sequence and confirmed by AS variant analyses of each species. 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 gray rectangles. Red triangles represent alternatively spliced exons conserved with Dugesiidae. 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 673 kb)