ScienceAsia 33 (2007): 461-468 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2007.33.461

Characterization of Expressed Sequence Tags from Liver and Muscle Tissues of Walking Catfish, Clarias macrocephalus

Dutrudi Panprommin,^a Supawadee Poompuang^b* and Prapansak Srisapoome^b

ABSTRACT:    Expressed sequence tags have been generated from cDNA libraries constructed from liver and muscle tissues of female walking catfish. Two thousand and twenty-nine randomly picked cDNA clones, 991 from the liver library and 1,038 from the muscle library were sequenced. A total of 1,334 EST clones showed significant sequence similarity to known genes in the databases, representing 303 genes from the liver library and 234 genes from the muscle library. Fifty-one full-length genes and 95 microsatellite repeat sequences were identified in both libraries. The majority of walking catfish EST sequences matched sequences identified from other Siluriformes, particularly channel catfish (513 EST clones, 38.5%) and zebrafish (284 EST clones, 21.3%). A number of identified genes appeared to be expressed in specific tissues. Vitellogenins were the most highly expressed genes in the liver of female walking catfish. Further, genes responsible for innate immune function of fish were found only in the liver. In contrast, genes encoding structural proteins were restricted to the muscle library. Analysis of the cDNA libraries indicates that EST approaches can provide effective ways to characterize expressed genes in walking catfish, and these libraries would be useful resources for identification of EST and microsatellite markers for mapping purposes.

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^a Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, Kasetsart University, Nakhon Pathom 73140.
^b Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900.

* Corresponding author, E-mail: supawadee.p@ku.ac.th

Received 15 Mar 2007, Accepted 15 Aug 2007