An expressed sequence tag (EST) library for Drosophila serrata, a model system for sexual selection and climatic adaptation studies

Frentiu, Francesca D., Adamski, Marcin, McGraw, Elizabeth A., Blows, Mark W. and Chenoweth, Stephen F. (2009) An expressed sequence tag (EST) library for Drosophila serrata, a model system for sexual selection and climatic adaptation studies. BMC Genomics, 10 40: 1-10.


Author Frentiu, Francesca D.
Adamski, Marcin
McGraw, Elizabeth A.
Blows, Mark W.
Chenoweth, Stephen F.
Title An expressed sequence tag (EST) library for Drosophila serrata, a model system for sexual selection and climatic adaptation studies
Formatted title An expressed sequence tag (EST) library for Drosophila serrata, a model system for sexual selection and climatic adaptation studies
Journal name BMC Genomics  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank A)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2009-01-21
Sub-type Article
Year available 2009
DOI 10.1186/1471-2164-10-40
Volume number 10
Issue number 40
ISSN 1471-2164
Start page 1
End page 10
Total pages 10
Editor M. Norton
Place of publication London, U.K.
Publisher BioMed Central
Collection year 2010
Language eng
Subject C1
970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
060408 Genomics
Formatted abstract Background: The native Australian fly Drosophila serrata belongs to the highly speciose montium subgroup of the melanogaster species group. It has recently emerged as an excellent model system with which to address a number of important questions, including the evolution of traits under sexual selection and traits involved in climatic adaptation along latitudinal gradients. Understanding the molecular genetic basis of such traits has been limited by a lack of genomic resources for this species. Here, we present the first expressed sequence tag (EST) collection for D. serrata that will enable the identification of genes underlying sexually-selected phenotypes and physiological responses to environmental change and may help resolve controversial phylogenetic relationships within the montium subgroup.

Results: A normalized cDNA library was constructed from whole fly bodies at several developmental stages, including larvae and adults. Assembly of 11,616 clones sequenced from the 3' end allowed us to identify 6,607 unique contigs, of which at least 90% encoded peptides. Partial transcripts were discovered from a variety of genes of evolutionary interest by BLASTing contigs against the 12 Drosophila genomes currently sequenced. By incorporating into the cDNA library multiple individuals from populations spanning a large portion of the geographical range of D. serrata, we were able to identify 11,057 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with 278 different contigs having at least one "double hit" SNP that is highly likely to be a real polymorphism. At least 394 EST-associated microsatellite markers, representing 355 different contigs, were also found, providing an additional set of genetic markers. The assembled EST library is available online at http://www.chenowethlab.org/serrata/index.cgi webcite.

Conclusion: We have provided the first gene collection and largest set of polymorphic genetic markers, to date, for the fly D. serrata. The EST collection will provide much needed genomic resources for this model species and facilitate comparative evolutionary studies within the montium subgroup of the D. melanogaster lineage.
© 2009 Frentiu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keyword Melanogaster species group
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Institutional Status UQ

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collections: 2010 Higher Education Research Data Collection
School of Biological Sciences Publications
 
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Created: Thu, 03 Sep 2009, 08:32:37 EST by Mr Andrew Martlew on behalf of School of Biological Sciences