RNA-seq analysis from lanternfish Diaphus watasei

Diaphus watasei is a fish that lives in the deep sea (water depth of 200 - 1,000 m). Some of the deep-sea organism have eyes that have advanced photoreception system in order to capture weak sunlight (1/1000 of the surface of the sea at a water depth of 200 m) efficiently. It is believed that D. watasei has bioluminescent organs (photophores) on the head and ventral side and uses luminescence for searching, hiding, communication, etc, and the structure and component of the photophores are elaborated for their special purposes. In this study, the genes expressed in the photophore and ocular tapetum were comprehensively analyzed using D. watasei. We aimed to identify the specific genes constituting guanine-based reflective tissues (reflectors) and light-producing photophores, which involve in the effective light communication of D. watasei. Moreover, we searched canditate luciferase from RNA-seq data.