Analysis of allele specific expression in artificial triploid medaka fish.

In general humans have two copies of each gene. These copies may not be identical, and each version is called an allele. In some disease states such as cancer, cells may contain extra genetic material such that more than two copies of some genes are present. In this project, we produced triploid fish from genetically disparate strains of medaka (Oryzias sp.) as a model and developed a computational method to distinguish the expression levels of each allele present. This project can potentially improve the ability of researchers to study polyploid organisms (for example many crop plants) and disease states (such as some cancers).