Limulus polyphemus NeuronalTranscriptome

Limulus polyphemus,the horseshoe crab is found on the Atlantic coast of North America. This species is important to have for a comparative approach involving arthropods. However, there is very limited information about the molecular organization of its nervous system. Here, using pyrosequencing approach we performed analysis of transcripts expressed in the adult and juvenile CNS and the light and dark sensitized photoreceptors from Limulus. Specifically, we developed a reduced representation sequencing method that can detect low abundant transcripts. Our method greatly reduces the amount of sequencing with more accurate quantification. Basically, sequential addition of adaptors paired with controlled digestion of cDNA generates a one transcript on read type of analysis.