EST-based Identification of Genes Expressed in the Muscle of Olive Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus

of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) is an efficient approach for gene discovery, expression profiling, and development of resources useful for functional genomics. To analyze the transcriptome of olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, we have conducted EST analysis using cDNA libraries made from muscle of P. olivaceus. Redundant ESTs were assembled into overlapping contigs by using the assembly program ICAtools software. We found that the 221 ESTs were composed of 21 clusters and 35 singletons, suggesting that the overall redundancy of the library was 74.7%. Of the 221 clones, 218 clones (98.6%) were identified as known genes by BLAST searches and 3 clones (1.4%) did not match to any previously described genes. Based on major functions of their encoded proteins, the identified clones were classified into 13 broad categories. Sequence analysis of the ESTs revealed the presence of microsatellite-containing genes which may be valuable for further gene mapping studies. This study contributes to the identification of many EST clones that could be useful for genetics and developmental biology of olive flounder.