A comparative gene expression profile of the whole eye fromhuman, mouse, and guinea pig

[摘要] Purpose: To characterize and compare gene expression patterns of thewhole eyeball among human, mouse, and guinea pig based on expressedsequence tags (ESTs).Methods: Approximately 10,000 clones were sequenced from the 5'-endfor each cDNA library made from mRNAs isolated from whole eyeballs ofhuman, mouse, and guinea pig. ESTs were assembled and analyzed based onstandard methods.Results: We acquired 31,464 high-quality ESTs including 9,949 forthe human, 11,495 for the mouse, and 10,020 for the guinea pig cDNAlibraries, which were clustered into 12,253 unigenes for all threespecies. After removal of non-mRNA contaminations, we were able to match96%, 97%, and 63% of the human, mouse, and guinea pig unigenes tosequences in the nonredundant library in GenBank, respectively. Thehigh-abundance and medium-abundance genes in each library correlate withthe anatomic structure and physiologic function of the eye in the threespecies. The large contribution from the lens in the mouse was relatedto the abundance of crystallin. Differentially expressed genes wereobserved among three libraries. Some of them appeared species-specific.Conclusions: According to their gene expression patterns, guinea pigand human eyes are more similar compared to those of the mouse, makingthe guinea pig a promising animal model for eye research.

[学科分类] 生物化学/生物物理