Identification of maternally-loaded RNA transcripts in unfertilized eggs of Tribolium castaneum. Tribolium castaneum

Using a tiled whole-genome microarray, we found that 58.2% of Tribolium castaneum genes are maternally loaded into eggs. Comparison of known Drosophila melanogaster maternal genes to our results showed widespread conservation of maternal function with T. castaneum. We also found many T. castaneum genes with previously identified gender or tissue specific expression were also maternally loaded into eggs. The microarray design also allowed the detection of 2315 and 4060 novel transcriptionally active regions greater in length than 100 bp in unfertilized and fertilized T. castaneum eggs, respectively. The primary objective of this study was to identify expressed regions of the Tribolium castaneum genome in unfertilized and fertilized eggs using a whole-genome tiled microarray. Overall design: The whole RNA of 3 samples of virgin laid eggs and 3 samples of fertilized eggs were compaired.

本研究采用全基因组平铺式微阵列（tiled whole-genome microarray）开展实验，发现赤拟谷盗（Tribolium castaneum）58.2%的基因可被母源递送至卵内。将已知的黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）母源基因与本研究结果进行比对后，可见赤拟谷盗的母源功能存在广泛的保守性。本研究同时发现，诸多此前已被鉴定出具有性别或组织特异性表达特征的赤拟谷盗基因，同样可通过母源途径递送至卵中。该微阵列的设计还可分别在未受精与受精的赤拟谷盗卵中，检测到2315个和4060个长度超过100 bp的全新转录活性区域（transcriptionally active regions）。本研究的核心目标为：借助全基因组平铺式微阵列，鉴定赤拟谷盗基因组在未受精及受精卵中的表达区域。实验整体设计：对3份处女产卵样本与3份受精卵样本的总RNA进行了比较分析。