Figure 1

The EZH2 locus yields two major transcriptional variants: EZH2α and EZH2β. (A) Comparative analysis of the structure of EZH2α and EZH2β transcript variants where sites of alternative splicing events are highlighted in red on the reference isoform. Details of splicing events are described in Table 1. (B) Protein structure differences between EZH2α and EZH2β proteins shows the conservation of functional domains and binding sites of enzymatic co-factors, represented by different colors and labeled accordingly. Labels 1 and 2 indicate the locations of deletions in EZH2β compared with EZH2α. A comparison of the amino acid sequence highlighting the amino acid differences between the two proteins is also presented. (C) Evolutionary dendrogram of invertebrate (blue) and vertebrate (green) EZH2 isoforms. Nodes are spaced according to evolutionary distance. Human EZH2α and EZH2β are highlighted in red. Combined, these results reveal the potential of EZH2 to generate various isoforms through alternative splicing mechanisms as well as highlight the conservation of EZH2 isoforms throughout evolution. Bp: base pair; EZH2: enhancer of zeste homologue 2.