Acipenser naccarii transcriptome. Acipenser naccarii

Sturgeons , for their ancient evolutionary radiation dated up to 250MY ago and for their genetic peculiarities are especially interesting for the study of genome evolution. Their highly fragmented genome with an extremely high number of chromosome, the occurrence of different degrees of ploidy and their possibility to hybridize among almost all the extant species suggest a high degree of genome plasticity. The species analyzed in this project is the Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii). It is endemic of the Adriatic Sea and its tributaries, on the brink of extinction with a high chromosome number (240) considered to be namely octaploid but functionally tetraploid. This study represents the first 454 sequencing of two cDNA libraries from the gonads and brain of one male and one female full-sib A. naccarii.