Bolinopsis transcriptome

The transparent comb jelly, Bolinopsis is representative of one of the most basal Metazoan lineages. Ctenophores are the earliest extant group with “true” neuronal and muscular tissues. Thus, it is one of emerging models to study the evolution of animal organization and the origin of nervous and muscular systems in particular. However, nothing is known about the molecular organization of this organism. Here, using pyrosequencing approach we performed deep transcriptome analysis of Bolinopsis. Specifically, we developed a reduced representation sequencing method that can detect low abundant transcripts. Our method greatly reduces the amount of sequencing with more accurate quantification. Basically, sequential addition of adaptors paired with controlled digestion of cDNA generates a one transcript on read type of analysis. Combined 5’ with 3’ targeted libraries produces greater coverage of individual transcripts and high quality assembly.