title: Identification, analysis, and linkage mapping of expressed sequence tags from the Australian sheep blowfly.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Australian sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is a destructive pest of the sheep, a model organism for insecticide resistance research, and a valuable tool for medical and forensic professionals. However, genomic information on L. cuprina is still sparse.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report here the construction of an embryonic and 2 larval cDNA libraries for L. cuprina. A total of 29,816 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were obtained and assembled into 7,464 unique clusters. The sequence collection captures a great diversity of genes, including those related to insecticide resistance (e.g., 12 cytochrome P450s, 2 glutathione S transferases, and 6 esterases). Compared to Drosophila melanogaster, codon preference is different in 13 of the 18 amino acids encoded by redundant codons, reflecting the lower overall GC content in L. cuprina. In addition, we demonstrated that the ESTs could be converted into informative gene markers by capitalizing on the known gene structures in the model organism D. melanogaster. We successfully assigned 41 genes to their respective chromosomes in L. cuprina. The relative locations of these loci revealed high but incomplete chromosomal synteny between L. cuprina and D. melanogaster.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results represent the first major transcriptomic undertaking in L. cuprina. These new genetic resources could be useful for the blowfly and insect research community.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, Bio21 Institute, Genetics Department, University of Melbourne, 30 Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Siu F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Zhenzhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Good
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Batterham
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015723:Gene Library; D017344:Genes, Insect; D049750:Genome, Insect; D007814:Larva / Q000235:genetics; D026801:Synteny; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D003062:Codon