Project description:To identified the differential expressed genes between the arsenic exposure cells and wild type cells As is a well- known carcinogen, it receives special attention. Due to its ubiquitous distribution in the environment, a unicellular model system related to the environment will be useful in toxicological research of arsenic. The eukaryotic protist Tetrahymena thermophila is a well-established model in classical toxicology and now a potential model at genomic level. In the present study, Tetrahymena thermophila was inbred with arsenate. With the use of microarray technique, the genes differentially expressed at 4 time points in exposure to arsenate were screened out. The major biological processes involved and their changes over time were identified with enrichment analysis and transformed expression data. Characteristics of arsenic toxicity and response to arsenic were identified, proving T. thermophila a good unicellular model for arsenic toxicological research at genomic level.
Project description:We present a comprehensive transcriptome of ciliate T. thermophila using the Illumina RNA-seq platform. The data was generated from the six mRNA samples of growth, starvation and conjugation of Tetrahymena. Despite an AT rich genome, there are about 124.6 million reads mapped to T. thermophila genome. Using these mapped reads, we have significantly improved the previous genome annotation and investigated the gene expression. Besides, our result also provided a comprehensive understanding of the alternative splicing in T. thermophila, and suggested the existence of the regulated unproductive splicing and translation (RUST) in the single-celled eukaryote. RNA-seq for six samples of Tetrahymena growth, starvation and conjugation.
