Transcriptomic approach for stress assessment in the soft coral, Scleronephthya gracillimum

Abstract

Motivated by the precarious state of coral ecosystem, there is currently a keen interest in coral transcriptomics. By investigating changes in coral gene expression triggered by particular environmental stressors, we can characterize coral stress responses at molecular level, which develop powerful diagnostic tools for evaluating coral health in the field. Toward this end, we performed NGS of the soft coral, Scleronephthya gracillimum, a geographically spread through the Kuroshio current species and developed oligoarray using approximately 34,000 clones. Total 33,401 reads were input to analyze KOG categorization and 32.42% of reads were successfully categorized, 2.14%, uncharacterized and 67.58% were not hit in the known information using BLASTx algorithm.stress responses at molecular level, which develop powerful diagnostic tools for evaluating coral health in the field. Toward this end, we performed NGS of the soft coral, Scleronephthya gracillimum, a geographically spread through the Kuroshio current species and developed oligoarray using approximately 34,000 clones. Total 33,401 reads were input to analyze KOG categorization and 32.42% of reads were successfully categorized, 2.14%, uncharacterized and 67.58% were not hit in the known information using BLASTx algorithm.