Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Exp Metastasis. 2022 Jan 12;39(3):391–406. doi: 10.1007/s10585-022-10146-x

Fig. 2. Structures of the CD44 gene and protein.

Fig. 2

(a) The full structure of the human CD44 gene. Exons 1–5 and exons 16–18 are constitutively expressed while exons v2–v10 and exons 19–20 undergo alternative splicing. Exons 1–17 encode the extracellular domain, exon 18 encodes the transmembrane domain (TM), and exons 19–20 are alternatively spliced to form the intracellular domain (ICD). Exon v1 is present in the human gene, but a mutation resulting in a premature termination codon prevents this exon from being expressed. Exon 19 contains a premature termination codon which blocks the downstream translation of exon 20 and is spliced out in most isoforms but is retained in CD44st. (b) A schematic of the CD44s isoform and a generalized CD44v isoform which includes additional amino acid sequences in the stem region. Created with BioRender.com