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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Leetown, West Virginia » Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #192891
Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPRESSED SEQUENCE TAGS FROM THE PITUITARY OF RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS)

Author
item Gahr, Scott
item RISE, MATTHEW - UNIV OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUK
item HUNT, PETER - UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
item KOOP, BEN - UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
item Rexroad, Caird

Submitted to: Animal Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2007
Publication Date: 7/1/2007
Citation: Gahr, S.A., Rise, M., Hunt, P., Koop, B., Rexroad III, C.E. 2007. Characterization of expressed sequence tags from the pituitary of rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss). Animal Biotechnology. 18(3):213-230.

Interpretive Summary: Understanding the biochemical processes that affect traits associated with aquaculture production efficiency will facilitate the genetic improvement of this species. The pituitary, a small gland located at the base of the brain, is responsible for the secretion of factors that act in the regulation of numerous physiological processes such as growth, immune function, osmotic balance, and gonad development. Although a total of 199,167 mRNA sequences have been analyzed in rainbow trout, to date there has been no analysis of transcripts specifically expressed in the pituitary. In the current study, we identified and characterized genes expressed in the rainbow trout pituitary. A total of 1396 new sequences were identified, 60% of which have been associated with a biochemical function.

Technical Abstract: The pituitary plays a significant role in the regulation of a wide variety of physiological processes in the body. In the current study, we obtained expressed sequence tag data to characterize the transcriptome of the rainbow trout pituitary. Clones (n=1920) from a normalized cDNA library constructed from pooled male and female pituitaries were sequenced to identify as many unique transcripts as possible. From these sequences a total of 524 contigs and 1256 singletons were identified, of which 77.3% and 78.9%, respectively, are novel and represent significant additions to the existing complement of expressed sequence tag data for rainbow trout. Overall, 60% of contigs were associated with functional annotation through Gene Ontology or BLASTx, demonstrating the need for further functional characterization of the rainbow trout pituitary transcriptome.