title: The transcript catalogue of the short-lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri provides insights into age-dependent changes of mRNA levels.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The African annual fish Nothobranchius furzeri has over recent years been established as a model species for ageing-related studies. This is mainly based on its exceptionally short lifespan and the presence of typical characteristics of vertebrate ageing. To substantiate its role as an alternative vertebrate ageing model, a transcript catalogue is needed, which can serve e.g. as basis for identifying ageing-related genes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To build the N. furzeri transcript catalogue, thirteen cDNA libraries were sequenced using Sanger, 454/Roche and Solexa/Illumina technologies yielding about 39 Gb. In total, 19,875 protein-coding genes were identified and annotated. Of these, 71% are represented by at least one transcript contig with a complete coding sequence. Further, transcript levels of young and old fish of the strains GRZ and MZM-0403, which differ in lifespan by twofold, were studied by RNA-seq. In skin and brain, 85 differentially expressed genes were detected; these have a role in cell cycle control and proliferation, inflammation and tissue maintenance. An RNA-seq experiment for zebrafish skin confirmed the ageing-related relevance of the findings in N. furzeri. Notably, analyses of transcript levels between zebrafish and N. furzeri but also between N. furzeri strains differed largely, suggesting that ageing is accelerated in the short-lived N. furzeri strain GRZ compared to the longer-lived strain MZM-0403.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We provide a comprehensive, annotated N. furzeri transcript catalogue and a first transcriptome-wide insight into N. furzeri ageing. This data will serve as a basis for future functional studies of ageing-related genes.
authors.affiliation: Genome Analysis, Leibniz Institute for Age Research - Fritz Lipmann Institute, Beutenbergstr. 11, Jena 07745, Germany. andpet@fli-leibniz.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petzold
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reichwald
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groth
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taudien
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Priebe
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shagin
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Englert
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Platzer
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D003532:Cyprinodontiformes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015723:Gene Library; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger