Initial assessment of gene diversity for the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans based on expressed sequences

A total of 1000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) corresponding to 760 unique sequence sets were identified using random sequencing of clones from a cDNA library constructed from mycelial RNA of Phytophthora infestans. A number of software programs, represented by a relational database and an analysis pipeline, were developed for the automated analysis and storage of the EST sequence data. A set of 419 nonredundant sequences, which correspond to a total of 632 ESTs (63.2%), were identified as showing significant matches to sequences deposited in public databases. A putative cellular identity and role was assigned to all 419 sequences. All major functional categories were represented by at least several ESTs. Four novel cDNAs containing sequences related to elicitins, a family of structurally related proteins that induce the hypersensitive response and condition avirulence of P. infestans on Nicotiana plants, were among the most notable genes identified. Two of these elicitin-like cDNAs were among the most abundant cDNAs examined. The set also contained several ESTs with high sequence similarity to unique plant genes.     

Analysis of expressed genes in ethylene-treated potato leaves using expressed sequence tags

To isolate useful and interesting plant genes in large quantities, random sequencing of cDNA clones from potato leaf library treated with ethylene was performed. Partial sequences of randomly selected 210 clones with the insert of longer than 500 base pair (bp) as well as poly (A) tail have been compared with sequences in GeneBank, EMBL and DDBJ nucleic acid databases and fostered 193 expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The 210 cDNA clones identified are related to various aspect of metabolic pathways such as glycolysis, amino acid synthesis, translation mechanism, ribosome synthesis, hormone response, stress response, regulation of gene expression, and signal transduction. Among the 193 ESTs, 12 ESTs (29 cDNA clones) appeared more than once and 181 ESTs appeared once regarded as a solitary group. Out of 210 clones, 29 clones (13.8%) have no similarity to the known nucleotide sequences and could serve as a potentially useful resource for plant molecular biology referring to particular genes. Nucleotide sequencing to generate more ESTs from ethylene-induced as well as non-induced potato leaf is in progress as well.     

高山植物黄管秦艽cDNA文库构建与表达序列标签（EST）分析

黄管秦艽（Gentiana officinalis）是一种重要的藏药高山植物,本研究构建了该物种开花期的eDNA文库。经检测达到中等cDNA文库水平,文库滴度为1．2×10^7pfu／ml,重组率95．9％,插入片段平均长度大于500bp。对343个随机挑选的重组克隆进行部分测序,获得的ESTs经编辑后共有181条有效序列。经生物信息学方法分析181条表达序列标签（EST）代表144个单克隆序列,其中55个与已鉴定的基因同源,35个序列与未鉴定的EST匹配,54个未找到同源序列;后两者共有89个EST序列未发现功能相似的蛋白。对已鉴定的EST进行功能分析发现,相关基因主要编码以下蛋白：与蛋白表达相关的占35％;光合作用相关的占笠％;新陈代谢相关的占18％;抗性相关的占11％;质膜运输和细胞分裂相关的分别占5％;染色体变化和细胞信号转导的分别占2％。根据有效EST序列设计引物,通过RT-PCR进一验证了所得EST的准确性。这些研究结果为将来研究黄管秦艽的功能基因以及该物种与相关物种的群体遗传学、进化生物学等方面提供了基础。