Identification and gene expression analysis of a taxonomically restricted cysteine-rich protein family in reef-building corals.

ABSTRACT: The amount of genomic sequence information continues to grow at an exponential rate, while the identification and characterization of genes without known homologs remains a major challenge. For non-model organisms with limited resources for manipulative studies, high-throughput transcriptomic data combined with bioinformatics methods provide a powerful approach to obtain initial insights into the function of unknown genes. In this study, we report the identification and characterization of a novel family of putatively secreted, small, cysteine-rich proteins herein named Small Cysteine-Rich Proteins (SCRiPs). Their discovery in expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries from the coral Montastraea faveolata required the performance of an iterative search strategy based on BLAST and Hidden-Markov

SUBMITTER: Sunagawa S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2652719 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature