EST analysis of gene expression in the germ-layer formation stage of the Bombyx mori

Abstract

In order to explore the gene expression underlying early embyogenesis, expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis was conducted using a cDNA library made from the 24h embryo of a silkworm, Bombyx mori. A total of 8,928 clones were screened plasmid with cDNA insert and have partially sequenced the 5′ ends to generate 2,446 assembled sequences. The annotation of 2,446 high-quality ESTs by a BLAST search, revealed that 1,516 (62%) of the sequences represented known genes. Over 2,400 ESTs consisted of 1,568 single ESTs (singlets) and 878 redundant ESTs (contigs). The functional groups of those sequences with matches in the database (P ？