Whole transcriptome profiling of the rat pineal gland during development from embryonic day 21 to adult

The transcriptome of the rat pineal gland is highly dynamic, with many hundreds of genes changing more than two-fold on a 24-hr daily rhythm, as revealed earlier using Affymetrix GeneChip analysis. Several key transcription factors and enzymes are known to change dramatically during development of the pineal gland. Studies on a small number of genes indicate that the onset of rhythmic expression generally occurs later in development. This study characterizes this temporally dynamic transcriptome using RNA-Seq to capture information regarding alternative splicing, novel exons, unannotated mRNAs, non-coding RNAs and coding transcripts not represented on the Affymetrix chips.大鼠松果体的转录组（transcriptome）具有高度动态性，此前通过Affymetrix基因芯片分析已发现，数百个基因的表达量以24小时昼夜节律发生两倍以上的变化。已知在松果体发育过程中，多种关键转录因子与酶的表达会发生显著改变。针对少量基因的研究表明，节律性表达的起始通常在发育后期出现。本研究采用RNA测序（RNA-Seq）技术对这一时序动态的转录组进行表征，以获取可变剪接、新型外显子、未注释mRNA、非编码RNA以及Affymetrix芯片未覆盖的编码转录本相关信息。