Construction and Primary Analysis of cDNA Library From Young Mulberry Leaves

In order to isolate and clone the functional genes involved in the growth development of mulberry,the full-length cDNA library from young mulberry leaves was constructed using the method of SMART(switching mechanism at 5′ end of RNA transcript) in this paper.The library consisted of 1.02×106 pfu/mL with the recombinant percentage of 95%,which can meet the quality requirement for cDNA library construction.Forty-eight clones were randomly selected from the cDNA library and the ESTs(expressed sequence tags) were sequenced.The 32 effective sequences obtained were merged and the UniGene ratio reached to 100%.By blasting 32 effective sequences against the NCBI non-redundant nucleotide databases,we found 29 homologous sequences which contained 16 full-length sequences,and the integrity ratio of the full-length sequences was 55.2%.Six ESTs with known function,5 ESTs with putative function and 21 ESTs with unnamed or unknown function were identified.The present results have established a solid molecular base for identifying and cloning functional genes from mulberry in the future.