Sampling the Skin Transcriptome of the North Atlantic Right Whale

• Published in: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics
• Main Authors: J. L. Ierardi, J. McMillan, M. L. Lundqvist, T. A. Romano, J. P. Wise, G. W. Warr, MANCIA, Annalaura
• Other Authors: J. L., Ierardi, Mancia, Annalaura, J., Mcmillan, M. L., Lundqvist, T. A., Romano, J. P., Wise, G. W., Warr
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Immune response; Eubalaena glaciali; Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs); Microsatellite; North Atlantic right whale; Skin; Eubalaena glacialis; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11392/1411410; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbd.2009.01.004

As an initial step in de!ning the transcriptome of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and developing functional genomic tools to study right whale health at the molecular physiological level, a cDNA library has been constructed from a skin biopsy. 2496 randomly selected clones (expressed sequence tags, ESTs) have been sequenced, and genes identi!ed as important in the response to stress and immune challenges have been cloned by targeted RT-PCR from skin cDNA. The analysis of the EST collection (archived at www.marinegenomics.org and GenBank) showed a 34.79% redundancy, yielding 1578 unigenes and 27 potential microsatellite markers. 96 genes were cloned by targeted PCR; moreover, 52 of these genes are stress and immune function related. A Gene Ontology analysis of the unigene collection indicates that the skin is a rich source of expressed genes with diverse functions, suggesting an important role in multiple physiological processes including those related to immunity and stress response.