Spinning gland transcriptomics from two main clades of spiders (order: Araneae)--insights on their molecular, anatomical and behavioral evolution.

ABSTRACT: Characterized by distinctive evolutionary adaptations, spiders provide a comprehensive system for evolutionary and developmental studies of anatomical organs, including silk and venom production. Here we performed cDNA sequencing using massively parallel sequencers (454 GS-FLX Titanium) to generate ∼80,000 reads from the spinning gland of Actinopus spp. (infraorder: Mygalomorphae) and Gasteracantha cancriformis (infraorder: Araneomorphae, Orbiculariae clade). Actinopus spp. retains primitive characteristics on web usage and presents a single undifferentiated spinning gland while the orbiculariae spiders have seven differentiated spinning glands and complex patterns of web usage. MIRA, Celera Assembler and CAP3 software were used to cluster NGS reads for each spider. CAP3 unigenes passed th

SUBMITTER: Prosdocimi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3126850 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature