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Expressed Sequence Tags: An Overview

  • John Parkinson
  • Mark Blaxter
Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 533)

Abstract

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are fragments of mRNA sequences derived through single sequencing reactions performed on randomly selected clones from cDNA libraries. To date, over 45 million ESTs have been generated from over 1400 different species of eukaryotes. For the most part, EST projects are used to either complement existing genome projects or serve as low-cost alternatives for purposes of gene discovery. However, with improvements in accuracy and coverage, they are beginning to find application in fields such as phylogenetics, transcript profiling and proteomics. This volume provides practical details on the generation and analysis of ESTs. Chapters are presented which cover creation of cDNA libraries; generation and processing of sequence data; bioinformatics analysis of ESTs; and their application to phylogenetics and transcript profiling.

Key words

Expressed sequence tags EST cDNA libraries database resources dbEST gene discovery transcript profiling 
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Copyright information

© Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • John Parkinson
    • 1
    • 2
  • Mark Blaxter
    • 3
  1. 1.Molecular Structure and FunctionHospital for Sick ChildrenTorontoCanada
  2. 2.Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular GeneticsUniversity of TorontoTorontoCanada
  3. 3.Institute of Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK

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