Whole transcriptome profiling of rat pineal glands and retinas collected throughout a 24-hour cycle. Rattus norvegicus

The rat pineal transcriptome is highly dynamic, with many hundreds of transcripts changing more than two-fold on a 24-hr basis, as revealed earlier using Affymetrix GeneChip analysis. The retina is evolutionally related to the pineal gland so these two tissues share many gene expression patterns. This study more completely characterizes the temporally dynamic transcriptomes of these tissues 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. We also identified transcripts that were selectively expressed in the pineal gland relative to other tissues by comparing pineal samples to a sample of pooled non-pineal tissues. Overall design: The transcriptomes of the rat pineal gland and retina were sequenced using samples collected at 6 time points throughout a 24-hour cycle to identify rhythmically expressed transcripts. The transcriptomes of pools of mixed tissues collected at mid-day (ZT7) and mid-night (ZT19) were also sequenced for comparison to aid in determining pineal-enriched transcripts. Contributor: NISC, Comparative Sequencing Program