Rapid gene discovery in plant parasitic nematodes via Expressed Sequence Tags

Projects currently underway are generating thousands of publicly available DNA sequences representing numerous genes from plant parasitic nematodes. U se of these data has the potential to revolutionise gene discovery, as well as aiding in genome physical mapping and expression profiling experiments. This article introduces sequences called expressed sequence tags or ESTs, which are single-sequence reads from randomly-selected cDNA clones. We revi ew the process used to create these sequences and outline the strengths and weaknesses of ESTs as research tools. Instructions on how to access and us e EST data also are provided.