Poster: Bioinformatics

Abs # 855: Computational identification and characterization of alternative transcript splicing from Solanaceae species

Presenter:	Fei, Zhangjun , zf25@cornell.edu
Authors	Fei, Zhangjun  (A)   Giovannoni, Jim  (A) (B)
Affiliations:	(A): Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (B): USDA Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory, Tower Road, Ithaca, NY 14853

Alternative splicing results in the production of different mRNAs that encode proteins with structural and/or functional differences often in a tissue-specific or developmental stage-specific manner and is therefore an important regulatory mechanism in gene expression. Differential splicing has emerged as one of the most significant generators of functional complexity in several well-studied animal genomes. However, little information about this phenomenon is available in plants. Here we report the computational identification of more than 1,000 genes with alternative splicing from both tomato and potato (which are center members of the family Solanceae) via analysis of EST abundance. Alternatively spliced genes were subdivided into different putative functional categories based on sequence similarity searches. Interestingly, the majority of differentially spliced transcripts encode proteins with putative regulatory functions. In addition, we compared EST prevalence (digital expression) in various tissues and developmental stages for each alternative spliced gene and identified subsets of genes with different expression patterns corresponding to individual splice variants. Results of intra- and inter-specific comparisons of tomato and potato will be presented.