EXPRESSED SEQUENCE TAGS (ESTS) FROM THE MARINE RED ALGA GRACILARIA-GRACILIS

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are partial sequences of cDNAs, and can be used to characterize gene expression in organisms or tissues. We h ave constructed a 200-sequence EST database from vegetative thalli of Gracilaria gracilis, the first ESTs reported from any alga. This datab ase contains recognizable ESTs corresponding to genes of carbohydrate metabolism (seven), amino acid metabolism (three), photosynthesis (fiv e), nucleic acid synthesis, repair and processing (three), protein syn thesis (14), protein degradation (six), cellular maintenance and stres s response (three), other identifiable protein-coding genes (13) and 1 46 sequences for which significant matches were not found in existing sequence databases. We have already used this EST database to recover genes of carbohydrate biosynthesis from G. gracilis.