title: EST analysis of mRNAs expressed in neurula of Chinese amphioxus.
abstract: Amphioxus, a cephalochordate, is the closest living relative to the vertebrates. In order to investigate the molecular mechanisms of the early embryogenesis of amphioxus, we constructed a neurula embryo cDNA library of Chinese amphioxus (Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense) and generated 5235 expressed sequenced tags in the present study. The initial ESTs consisted of 638 clusters and 1855 singletons, which revealed approximately 2493 unique genes in the data set. Of these sequences, 35.52% ESTs matched to known genes, 12.76% matched to other ESTs, and 51.71% had no match to any known sequences in GenBank. Interestingly we found homologous genes related to neural development and human disease. Bioinformatic analysis showed the direct evidence that the gene homologue found only in vertebrates in previous studies also exists in the amphioxus genome. This study provides a preliminary view of the gene information involved in the development of neurula embryos of Chinese amphioxus and helps our understanding of vertebrate evolution at gene level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, State Open Laboratory for Marine Functional Genomics, Guangzhou Center for Bioinformatics, College of Life Sciences, Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, 135 Xingangxi Road, 510275, Guangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Chun-yan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Mou
authors.forename: Shi-cui
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiang-hai
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Wen-li
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wen-yan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jian-wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Xiao-kun
authors.initials: XK
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jing-chun
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Zhi-yan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Lan-ting
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiao-jin
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yi-liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: An-long
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002816:Chordata, Nonvertebrate / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015723:Gene Library; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger