Project Director: John Colbourne

The genomic sequence database provides a preliminary characterization of the Daphnia genome and serves as a tool to design gene specific primers. A significant number of ecologically relevant genes have already been identified by GS and EST sequencing, not to mention genes coding for other proteins involved in cell structure and adhesion, cell signaling, metabolism, development, transcription regulation and DNA repair. Primers designed from these partial sequences are used to capture genes from the cosmid library, used as markers for population genetic study and used to examine gene expression levels under experimental treatments using Reverse Transcriptase (RT)PCR. wFleaBase currently contains sequences for over 3,000 Daphnia genes with significant homology to characterized genes in genetic model organisms. Over 20 families of mobile elements have also been identified from our small survey, while the identification of Daphnia specific promoters are helpful in constructing tools for genetic transformation.

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