PCR with degenerate primers to conserved reverse transcriptase domains indicate that bdelloid genomes do not contain reverse transcriptase, although we have found it in all other phyla we have tested (Arkhipova & Meselson 2001).  The gels below show the results of PCR for two different classes of reverse transcriptase. Reactions containing bdelloid DNA are indicated in red; reactions containing DNA of facultatively sexual monogononts are indicated in blue.