Fig. 2

Reverse transcriptase PCR validation of skipped exon (SE) and retained intron (RI) events in the early developmental stages of E. granulosus protoscoleces at different time points after induction of strobilar development. a Sashimi plot depicting the region tested for the presence of alternative splicing isoforms. Non-induced control protoscoleces (NT group), pepsin-treated protoscoleces (PEP group), and protoscoleces cultivated in biphasic medium for 12 and 24 h (12 and 24 h groups). The exons with alternative splicing events were described as expected base-pair size of the transcript with and without exon splicing along with average inclusion level (IncLevel) based on DNA band densitometry. b Agarose gel electrophoresis of transcript isoform amplification corresponding to each treatment group. Red frames show the missing bands indicating retained intron AS event. NTC non-template control for PCR amplifications. c A subset of retained intron event (RI1) and skipping exon events (SE1, SE2, SE3 and SE4) in the protoscoleces were confirmed by RT-PCR. Schematic frames show predicted AS events in exons and introns. In panel c, the exon is highlighted in red. For a detailed view of the full gene and splicing isoforms, see Additional file 2: Figures S1–S6