Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs): From Trace to Sequence

Abstract

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are fragments of mRNA sequences derived through single sequencingreactions performed on randomly selected clones from cDNA libraries. To date, over 45 million ESTs havebeen generated from over 1400 different species of eukaryotes. For the most part, EST projects are used toeither complement existing genome projects or serve as low-cost alternatives for purposes of genediscovery. However, with improvements in accuracy and coverage, they are beginning to find applicationin fields such as phylogenetics, transcript profiling and proteomics. This volume provides practical detailson the generation and analysis of ESTs. Chapters are presented which cover creation of cDNA libraries;generation and processing of sequence data; bioinformatics analysis of ESTs; and their application tophylogenetics and transcript profiling