Transcriptomics of the immune system of hydrozoan Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus using high throughput sequencing methods

Abstract

Cnidarians are ecologically important animals in marine ecosystems like coral reefs, where the incidence of disease has raised in the past years due to numerous environmental changes. In this work, messenger (m)RNA samples from cultured colonies of the hydrozoan Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus were sequenced using the Illumina platform. The Trinity program was used to assemble the transcriptome de novo and 116.924 contigs were obtained and were annotated by comparisons with public databases. The immunotranscriptome was characterized by a great diversity of transcripts coding for adhesion molecules and peptidases. Through sequencing with the Illumina platform we obtained a transcriptome draft for the organism H. symbiolongicarpus from which a large set of immune-related molecules was obtained.... © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.