Integrated Full-Length Transcriptome and RNA-Seq to Identify Immune System Genes from the Skin of Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus).

ABSTRACT: Cetaceans are a group of secondary aquatic mammals whose ancestors returned to the ocean from land, and during evolution, their immune systems adapted to the aquatic environment. Their skin, as the primary barrier to environmental pathogens, supposedly evolved to adapt to a new living environment. However, the immune system in the skin of cetaceans and the associated molecular mechanisms are still largely unknown. To better understand the immune system, we extracted RNA from the sperm whale's (Physeter macrocephalus) skin and performed PacBio full-length sequencing and RNA-seq sequencing. We obtained a total of 96,350 full-length transcripts with an average length of 1705 bp and detected 5150 genes that were associated with 21 immune-related pathways by gene annotation enrichment analysis.

SUBMITTER: Wang D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7914425 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature