ESTs and EST-linked polymorphisms for genetic mapping and phylogenetic reconstruction in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata.
BACKGROUND
The guppy, Poecilia reticulata, is a well-known model organism for studying inheritance and variation of male ornamental traits as well as adaptation to different river habitats. However, genomic resources for studying this important model were not previously widely available.


RESULTS
With the aim of generating molecular markers for genetic mapping of the guppy, cDNA libraries were constructed from embryos and different adult organs to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs). About 18,000 ESTs were annotated according to BLASTN and BLASTX results and the sequence information from the 3' UTRs was exploited to generate PCR primers for re-sequencing of genomic DNA from different wild type strains. By comparison of EST-linked genomic sequences from at least four different ecotypes, about 1,700 polymorphisms were identified, representing about 400 distinct genes. Two interconnected MySQL databases were built to organize the ESTs and markers, respectively. A robust phylogeny of the guppy was reconstructed, based on 10 different nuclear genes.


CONCLUSIONS
Our EST and marker databases provide useful tools for genetic mapping and phylogenetic studies of the guppy.
Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, D72076, Germany. christine.dreyer@tuebingen.mpg.de
Christine
C
Dreyer
Margarete
M
Hoffmann
Christa
C
Lanz
Eva-Maria
EM
Willing
Markus
M
Riester
Norman
N
Warthmann
Andrea
A
Sprecher
Namita
N
Tripathi
Stefan R
SR
Henz
Detlef
D
Weigel
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D010802:Phylogeny; D011036:Poecilia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012730:Sex Chromosomes
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary