Transcriptomic analysis of the hydrothermal mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus

The hydrothermal vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus harbors thiotrophic and methanotrophic bacteria in its gills. The symbiotic relationships between the mussel and bacteria have been reported, but the molecular mechanisms about the symbiosis are poorly understood. As a first step to genome scientific approach, here we obtained the transcriptome data of the deep-sea mussel. RNAs were isolated from tissues of single individual of the hydrothermal mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus. The tissues include gills (containing also hemocytes), mantle, digestive gland and some pieces of foot and muscle. The frozen sample was provided by our collabolators, Arnaud Tanguy and Francois H. Lallier. This project reports transcriptome analysis, using illumina GAIIx. The comparative transcriptomic analysis will be performed.