Transcriptome generation and analysis from spleen of Indian catfish, Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus, 1758) through normalized cDNA library

Catfishes are commercially important fish for both the fisheries and aquaculture industry. Clarias batrachus, an Indian catfish species is economically important owing to its high demand. A normalized cDNA library was constructed from spleen of the Indian catfish to identify genes associated with immune function. One thousand nine hundred thirty seven ESTs were submitted to the GenBank with an average read length of approximately 700 bp. Clustering analysis of ESTs yielded 1,698 unique sequences, including 184 contigs and 1,514 singletons. Significant homology to known genes was found by homology searches against data in GenBank in 576 (34 %) ESTs, including similarity to functionally annotated unigenes for 158 ESTs. Additionally, 433 ESTs revealed similarity to unigenes and ESTs in the dbEST but the remaining 658 EST sequences (39 %) did not match any sequence in GenBank. Of a total of 1,698 ESTs generated, 65 ESTs were found to be associated with immune functions. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analyses of C. batrachus ESTs collectively revealed a preponderance of immune relevant pathways apart from the presence of pathways involved in protein processing, localization, folding and protein degradation. This study constitutes first EST analysis of lymphoid organ in aquaculturally important Indian catfish species and could pave the way for further research of immune-related genes and functional genomics in this catfish.     

Identification and analysis of expressed sequence tags present in xylem tissues of kelampayan (Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser)

The large-scale genomic resource for kelampayan was generated from a developing xylem cDNA library. A total of 6,622 high quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated through high-throughput 5’ EST sequencing of cDNA clones. The ESTs were analyzed and assembled to generate 4,728 xylogenesis unigenes distributed in 2,100 contigs and 2,628 singletons. About 59.3 % of the ESTs were assigned with putative identifications whereas 40.7 % of the sequences showed no significant similarity to any sequences in GenBank. Interestingly, most genes involved in lignin biosynthesis and several other cell wall biosynthesis genes were identified in the kelampayan EST database. The identified genes in this study will be candidates for functional genomics and association genetic studies in kelampayan aiming at the production of high value forests.     

Comparative analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from Triticum monococcum shoot apical meristem at vegetative and reproductive stages

Triticum monococcum has recently drawn the attention of biologists to discover and utilize novel genes and alleles. To explore the molecular features of the genetic network governing floral transition in shoot apical meristem (SAM) of spring growth habit T. monococcum, two expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries containing 3,031 ESTs from vegetative SAM (VS) and 2,647 ESTs from early reproductive SAM (RS) were analyzed. Assembly of ESTs resulted in 2,303 unigenes for VS library (368 contigs and 1,935 singletons) and 1,890 unigenes (337 contigs and 1,553 singletons) for RS library. The 67.05 % of VS unigenes and 66.30 % of RS unigenes showed significant similarity with genes of known, putative and or unknown function, whereas the remaining 32.95 % of the VS unigenes and 33.7 % of RS unigenes displayed no significant match with the public protein database. The 1,064 and 866 unigenes of VS and RS libraries were assigned to functional categories using Pageman ontology tool. Further analysis revealed that the switch from VS to RS caused significant changes in the abundance of unigenes assigned to some functional categories. A total of 37 genes were identified which were significantly differentially expressed between vegetative and reproductive stages of T. monococcum SAM. Investigation of the differentially expressed genes revealed the importance of the genes involved in energy metabolism, ubiquitin/26S proteasome system, polyamines biosynthesis and signaling of reactive oxygen species in SAM differentiation towards floral transition in T. monococcum.     

Analysis of expressed sequence tags from grapevine flower and fruit and development of simple sequence repeat markers

A total of 6,230 EST sequences were produced from 7,561 clones in a cDNA library generated from grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. ‘Summer Black’) flower and fruit tissues in this study. After cluster and assembly analysis of the datasets, 3,582 unigenes (GenBank accession numbers GW836604–GW840185) were established, among which 381 were new grapevine EST sequences. Out of the 381 new ESTs, 289 could be mapped on the 19 grapevine chromosomes. 913 unique ESTs with known or putative functions were assigned to 11 putative cellular roles. 540 potentially workable grapevine EST-SSRs were developed from 3,582 unigenes and about 42.6% of these unigenes were identified as true-to-type SSR loci and could amplify polymorphic bands from 22 individual plants of V. vinifera L, indicating that grapevine EST datasets are a valuable source for the development of functional simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.     

Development and mapping of functional expressed sequence tag-derived simple sequence repeat markers in a rubber tree RRIM600 × PB217 population

Sets of polymorphic expressed sequence tag–simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) have been published by many researchers, but none has been specifically developed to study latex and wood yield traits. In this study, a total 10,321 rubber tree EST sequences, generated from suppression subtractive hybridization-cDNA libraries of bark and latex of high- and low-yielding clones, were used as sources for SSR searching. A total of 432 EST-SSR loci were identified and it was possible to design primer pairs for a subset of 298 EST-SSRs. The highest proportion of EST-SSRs was represented by dinucleotide repeats (46.6 %), followed by trinucleotide repeats (44.3 %). Based on BLASTX analysis, 234 ESTs (80 %) showed similarity to genes in NCBI databases and could be divided into 120 putative proteins with known function and 114 unknown proteins. To enhance the resolution of an existing linkage map from previous work on a rubber tree RRIM600 × PB217 population, 69 EST-SSR markers from the above set were tested to be integrated into the reference genetic map. The enriched map of 18 linkage groups spanned 2054.2 cM in length, showed an average genetic distance of 4.3 cM between adjacent markers, and included 63 new EST-SSR markers. The enhanced map from this study provides a basis for comparative mapping using PCR-based markers and identification of expressed genes possibly affecting important traits of interest.     

Development of 240 novel EST-SSRs in Eucalyptus L’Hérit

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers derived from expressed sequence tag (EST) resources provide great potential for comparative mapping, direct gene tagging of quantitative trait loci and functional diversity studies. Here we report on the development of 240 novel EST-SSRs for the important tree genus Eucalyptus L’Hérit. Of the 240 EST-SSR loci, 218 (90.8 %) were polymorphic among 12 individuals of E. grandis Hill ex Maiden, with the number of alleles per locus (N _a), observed heterozygosity (H _o), expected heterozygosity (H _e) and polymorphic information content (PIC) averaging at 5.0, 0.403, 0.598 and 0.529, respectively. High rates of cross-species/subgenus amplification were observed. The EST-SSRs developed herein would be a valuable addition of functional markers for genetics and breeding applications in a wide range of eucalypt species. The primer sequences for the 240 EST-SSRs have been deposited in the Probe database of GenBank (IDs Pr016588534–773).     

Mining and charactering microsatellites in Cucumis melo expressed sequence tags from sequence database

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) derived from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are valuable markers because they represent transcribed regions and often have putative functions. We mined and characterized microsatellites in melon ESTs. Three hundred and eighty‐three SSR loci were identified in 309 of 3188 unigenes assembled by 5747 EST and mRNA sequences in GenBank with occurring frequency of 1/4.7 kb. Twenty‐two polymorphic EST‐SSR markers were developed with the mean allele number of 2.9 per locus and mean expected heterozygosity of 0.442. Amplification products were also detected by 15 pairs of primer in Cucumis sativus. Those informative EST‐SSR markers can be used in melon genetic improvement projects.     

Development of EST-SSR markers through data mining and their use for genetic diversity study in Indian accessions of Jatropha curcas L.: a potential energy crop

Jatropha curcas L. is gaining importance as a potential energy crop. However, lack of sufficient numbers of molecular markers hinder current research on crop improvement in Jatropha. The expressed sequences tags (EST) sequences deposited in public databases, offers an excellent opportunity to identify simple sequence repeats (SSRs) through data mining, for further research on molecular breeding. In the present study 42,477 ESTs of J. curcas were screened, out of which 5,673 SSRs were identified with 48.8 % simple (excluding mononucleotide repeats) and 52.2 % compound repeat motifs. Amongst these repeat motifs, dinucleotide repeats were abundant (26.5 %), followed by trinucleotide (23.1 %) and tetranucleotide repeats (0.8 %). From these microsatellites, 32 EST-SSR (genic microsatellite) primer pairs were designed. These primers were used to analyze the genetic diversity among 42 accessions collected from different parts of India. Out of the 32 EST-SSR primers, 24 primer pairs exhibited polymorphism among the genotypes, with amplicons varying from one to eight, giving an average of 2.33 alleles per polymorphic marker. Polymorphic information content value ranged from 0.02 to 0.5 with an average of 0.402 indicating moderate level of informativeness within these EST-SSRs markers. The EST-SSR markers developed here will serve as a valuable resource for genetic studies, like linkage mapping, diversity analysis, quantitative trait locus/association mapping, and molecular breeding. The current study also revealed low diversity in the screened Indian Jatropha germplasm. Therefore, the future efforts must be made to broaden the gene pool of Jatropha for the creation of genetic diversity that can be further used for crop improvement through breeding.     

Novel and Stress Relevant EST Derived SSR Markers Developed and Validated in Peanut

With the aim to increase the number of functional markers in resource poor crop like cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea), large numbers of available expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the public databases, were employed for the development of novel EST derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. From 16424 unigenes, 2784 (16.95%) SSRs containing unigenes having 3373 SSR motifs were identified. Of these, 2027 (72.81%) sequences were annotated and 4124 gene ontology terms were assigned. Among different SSR motif-classes, tri-nucleotide repeats (33.86%) were the most abundant followed by di-nucleotide repeats (27.51%) while AG/CT (20.7%) and AAG/CTT (13.25%) were the most abundant repeat-motifs. A total of 2456 EST-SSR novel primer pairs were designed, of which 366 unigenes having relevance to various stresses and other functions, were PCR validated using a set of 11 diverse peanut genotypes. Of these, 340 (92.62%) primer pairs yielded clear and scorable PCR products and 39 (10.66%) primer pairs exhibited polymorphisms. Overall, the number of alleles per marker ranged from 1-12 with an average of 3.77 and the PIC ranged from 0.028 to 0.375 with an average of 0.325. The identified EST-SSRs not only enriched the existing molecular markers kitty, but would also facilitate the targeted research in marker-trait association for various stresses, inter-specific studies and genetic diversity analysis in peanut.     

Discovery, validation, and in silico functional characterization of EST-SSR markers in Eucalyptus globulus

Eucalyptus globulus is the most commonly planted hardwood species for pulpwood in temperate regions. We aimed to develop and characterize functional molecular markers for population genetic analyses and molecular breeding in this model tree species. Public expressed sequence tag (EST) databases were screened for nonredundant sequences to predict putative gene functions and to discover simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs), which were then validated in E. globulus and six other Eucalyptus species. A total of 4,924 nonredundant sequences were identified from 12,690 updated E. globulus ESTs. Approximately 19.3% (952) were unigenes and contained 1,140 EST-SSR markers, which were mainly trimeric (58.6%). A set of 979 primers for putative SSR markers was designed after bioinformatic analysis. The predicted functions of these ESTs containing SSR were classified according to their gene ontology (GO) categories (biological process, molecular function, and cellular component). GO categories were assigned to 226 ESTs (30.2%). Most ESTs containing SSR (78.7%) had significant matches (E ≤ 10⁻⁵) with the nonredundant protein database using BLASTX. From a set of 56 random primer pairs, 37 could be validated in eight E. globulus genotypes and were also tested for cross-transferability to other six Eucalyptus species (Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus saligna, Eucalyptus dunnii, Eucalyptus viminalis, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus tereticornis). Seventeen polymorphic EST-SSR markers for E. globulus were evaluated in 60 unrelated trees, being representative of the species’ natural distribution. As a result, six highly informative markers were proposed for genetic diversity analyses, fingerprinting, and comparative population studies, between different species of E. globulus.     

Development of an expressed sequence tag (EST) resource for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): EST generation, unigene analysis, probe selection and bioinformatics for a 16,000-locus bin-delineated map

This report describes the rationale, approaches, organization, and resource development leading to a large-scale deletion bin map of the hexaploid (2n = 6x = 42) wheat genome (Triticum aestivum L.). Accompanying reports in this issue detail results from chromosome bin-mapping of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) representing genes onto the seven homoeologous chromosome groups and a global analysis of the entire mapped wheat EST data set. Among the resources developed were the first extensive public wheat EST collection (113,220 ESTs). Described are protocols for sequencing, sequence processing, EST nomenclature, and the assembly of ESTs into contigs. These contigs plus singletons (unassembled ESTs) were used for selection of distinct sequence motif unigenes. Selected ESTs were rearrayed, validated by 5′ and 3′ sequencing, and amplified for probing a series of wheat aneuploid and deletion stocks. Images and data for all Southern hybridizations were deposited in databases and were used by the coordinators for each of the seven homoeologous chromosome groups to validate the mapping results. Results from this project have established the foundation for future developments in wheat genomics.     

EST-SSR markers derived from Laminaria digitata and its transferable application in Saccharina japonica

The public availability of numerous expressed sequence tag (EST) enables EST-based SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers to be widely used for genetics and breeding studies. In the present study, EST-SSR markers were developed from ESTs of Laminaria digitata and were transferred to the non-congeneric species Saccharina japonica. Among the 2,668 non-redundant ESTs, 83 (3.1%) ESTs containing SSR were identified totally, with an average of one SSR per 13.6 kb. Analysis of SSR motifs revealed that the trinucleotide and tetranucleotide were major motifs, accounted for 44.58% and 16.87%, respectively. Based on the 83 ESTs containing SSR, we designed 45 pairs of primers in the flanking regions of the SSR, of which 13 pairs showed polymorphism in a wild S. japonica population, and the mean alleles per locus was 3.6 (ranging from 2 to 6). The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosities of these EST-SSRs were 0.234–0.632 and 0.260–0.635, respectively. All loci were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in the wild population and no linkage disequilibrium was detected among loci. The obtained EST-SSR markers can facilitate and promote related research such as ecological investigation, genetic diversity assessment and breeding practice of S. japonica as well.     

Transferability of the EST-SSRs developed on Nules clementine (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Citrus clementina</Emphasis> Hort ex Tan) to other <Emphasis Type="Italic">Citrus</Emphasis> species and their effectiveness for genetic mapping

Background

During the last decade, numerous microsatellite markers were developed for genotyping and to identify closely related plant genotypes. In citrus, previously developed microsatellite markers were arisen from genomic libraries and more often located in non coding DNA sequences. To optimize the use of these EST-SSRs as genetic markers in genome mapping programs and citrus systematic analysis, we have investigated their polymorphism related to the type (di or trinucleotide) or their position in the coding sequences.

Results

Among 11000 unigenes from a Clementine EST library, we have found at least one microsatellite sequence (repeated units size ranged from 2 to 6 nucleotides) in 1500 unigenes (13.6%). More than 95% of these SSRs were di or trinucleotides. If trinucleotide microsatellites were encountered trough all part of EST sequences, dinucleotide microsatellites were preferentially (50%) concentrated in the 5' 100th nucleotides. We assessed the polymorphism of 41 EST-SSR, by PCR amplification droved with flanking primers among ten Citrus species plus 3 from other genera. More than 90% of EST-SSR markers were polymorphic. Furthermore, dinucleotide microsatellite markers were more polymorphic than trinucleotide ones, probably related to their distribution that was more often located in the 5' UnTranslated Region (UTR). We obtained a good agreement of diversity relationships between the citrus species and relatives assessed with EST-SSR markers with the established taxonomy and phylogeny. To end, the heterozygosity of each genotype and all dual combinations were studied to evaluate the percentage of mappable markers. Higher values (> 45%) were observed for putative Citrus inter-specific hybrids (lime lemon, or sour orange) than for Citrus basic true species (mandarin, pummelo and citron) (<30%). Most favorable combinations for genome mapping were observed in those involving interspecific hybrid genotypes. Those gave higher levels of mappable markers (>70%) with a significant proportion suitable for synteny analysis.

Conclusion

Fourty one new EST-SSR markers were produced and were available for citrus genetic studies. Whatever the position of the SSR in the ESTs the EST-SSR markers we developed are powerful to investigate genetic diversity and genome mapping in citrus.