Tammar wallaby thymus transcriptomes (dataset)

The thymus plays a critical role in the development and maturation of T-cells. Humans have a single thoracic thymus and presence of a second thymus is considered an anomaly. However, many vertebrates have multiple thymuses. The tammar wallaby has two thymuses: a thoracic thymus (typically found in all mammals) and a dominant cervical thymus.At the time of data collection in 2011, no genome-wide research had been carried out into the possible functional differences between the two thymuses. The tammar wallaby transcriptome data set allows comparison of the gene expression in the thoracic and cervical thymic tissues.The researchers used pyrosequencing to compare the transcriptomes of a cervical and thoracic thymus from a single 178 day old tammar wallaby.RNA from cervical and thoracic thymic tissues from a 178-day-old tammar wallaby pouch young was extracted by Marylin B Renfree at the University of Melbourne.  The tissue was pyrosequenced by Richard A Gibbs (Baylor College of Medicine) using the Roche 454 platform. 758,062 reads with an average read length of 184 bases were generated. Data analysis was undertaken primarily by Emily SW Wong and Katherine Belov at the University of Sydney.  For a full list of contributors to the tammar wallaby transcriptomes dataset, please refer to the associated publication.

胸腺在T细胞的发育与成熟过程中发挥关键作用。人类仅拥有单枚胸腔胸腺，额外存在第二胸腺被视为异常情况。然而，多数脊椎动物拥有多枚胸腺。塔马尔沙袋鼠（tammar wallaby）拥有两枚胸腺：一枚为所有哺乳动物普遍具备的胸腔胸腺，另一枚为主导性颈部胸腺。
2011年数据采集之时，尚无针对这两枚胸腺潜在功能差异的全基因组研究。本塔马尔沙袋鼠转录组（transcriptome）数据集可用于对比胸腔与颈部胸腺组织的基因表达情况。
研究人员采用焦磷酸测序（pyrosequencing）技术，对一只178日龄塔马尔沙袋鼠的颈部与胸腔胸腺的转录组进行对比分析。来自178日龄塔马尔沙袋鼠育儿袋幼崽的颈部及胸腔胸腺组织的RNA，由墨尔本大学的Marylin B Renfree提取。该组织样本由贝勒医学院的Richard A Gibbs依托罗氏454测序平台完成焦磷酸测序，共生成758062条读段，平均读长为184个碱基。数据分析主要由悉尼大学的Emily SW Wong与Katherine Belov完成。如需获取本塔马尔沙袋鼠转录组数据集的完整贡献者名单，请参阅相关发表文献。