Serial analysis of gene expression in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.
The silkworm Bombyx mori is one of the most economically important insects and serves as a model for Lepidoptera insects. We used serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) to derive profiles of expressed genes during the developmental life cycle of the silkworm and to create a reference for understanding silkworm metamorphosis. We generated four SAGE libraries, one from each of the four developmental stages of the silkworm. In total we obtained 257,964 SAGE tags, of which 39,485 were unique tags. Sorted by copy number, 14.1% of the unique tags were detected at a median to high level (five or more copies), 24.2% at lower levels (two to four copies), and 61.7% as single copies. Using a basic local alignment search tool on the EST database, 35% of the tags matched known silkworm expressed sequence tags. SAGE demonstrated that a number of the genes were up- or down-regulated during the four developmental phases of the egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Furthermore, we found that the generation of longer cDNA fragments from SAGE tags constituted the most efficient method of gene identification, which facilitated the analysis of a large number of unknown genes.
Huang
Jianhua
J
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences Graduate School, 300 Feng Lin Road, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China.
Miao
Xuexia
X
Jin
Weirong
W
Couble
Pierre
P
Mita
Kasuei
K
Zhang
Yong
Y
Liu
Wenbin
W
Zhuang
Leijun
L
Shen
Yan
Y
Keime
Celine
C
Gandrillon
Olivier
O
Brouilly
Patrick
P
Briolay
Jerome
J
Zhao
Guoping
G
Huang
Yongping
Y
D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D015723:Gene Library; D016678:Genome; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013997:Time Factors; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger