RNA-Seq of Cornu aspersum mucus-secreting tissue
Snails provided by Peconic Escargot in February 2020 were sacrificed on-site via freezing in a dry ice-ethanol mixture. Whole snails were stored in Invitrogen RNAlater (Thermo Fisher, AM7021) and frozen at 80 C until used. Total RNA was extracted using a Qiagen RNeasy Micro kit (Qiagen, 74004) according to manufacturers instructions, from 6 individual tissue slices from different snails. The integrity of total RNA was confirmed using nanodrop and Agilent 2100 BioAnalyzer analysis. Total RNA was used as a template to perform polyA enriched first strand cDNA synthesis using the HiSeq RNA sample preparation kit for Illumina Sequencing (Illumina Inc., CA) following manufacturers instructions. The cDNA libraries were sequenced using Illumina HiSeq 1000 technology using a paired end flow cell and 80 x 2 cycle sequencing.