Project description:A holistic approach to examine differential gene expression profiles of transcripts relevant to the moulting process, across all moult cycle stages, was used in this study. Custom cDNA microarrays were constructed for P. pelagicus. The printed arrays contained 5000 transcripts derived from both the whole organism, and from individual organs such as the brain, eyestalk, mandibular organ and Y-organ from all moult cycle stages. A total of 556 clones were sequenced from the cDNA libraries used to construct the arrays. These cDNAs represented 217 singlets and 62 contigs, resulting in 279 unique putative genes. Moult cycle-related differential expression patterns were observed for many transcripts. Keywords: cyclic moult stage comparison of the crab Portunus pelagicus
