Tissue-specific expression profiles and positive selection analysis in the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) using a de novo transcriptome assembly.

ABSTRACT: Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) are one of the most commonly studied wild birds in North America. They have advanced numerous research areas, including life history, physiology, and organismal responses to global change; however, transcriptomic resources are scarce. To further advance the utility of this system for biologists across disciplines, we generated a transcriptome for the tree swallow using six tissues (brain, blood, ovary, spleen, liver, and muscle) collected from breeding females. We de novo assembled 207,739 transcripts, which we aligned to 14,717 high confidence protein-coding genes. We then characterized each tissue with regard to its unique genes and processes and applied this transcriptome to two fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and endocrinology. First, w

SUBMITTER: Bentz AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6825141 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature