Identification of expressed sequence tags of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) leaf at the vegetative stage

A cDNA library was constructed using mRNA prepared from leaves of watermelo n [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai] at the vegetative stage. Rand omly selected cDNA clones were sequenced in order to identify potentially i nformative genes. Database comparisons indicated that out of the 704 waterm elon cDNA clones, 399 clones (56.7%) revealed a high degree of sequence sim ilarity to genes from other organisms. These expressed sequence tag clones were divided into ten categories depending upon gene function. Since this k ind of experiment has not previously been carried out in this genome, rando m nucleotide sequencing of these cDNAs could contribute considerable inform ation concerning the novel genes in this organism.