Analysis of 686 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the intertidal harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus japonicus (Crustacea, Copepoda).

The intertidal harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus japonicus is an important species in the study of marine pollution. To facilitate molecular biomonitoring using T. japonicus, we constructed a T. japonicus unidirectional cDNA library using lambdaZAP expression vector, excised to pBluescript vector with the aid of helper phage, and analyzed 686 randomly picked expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from this species. From the 686 ESTs sequenced, we found several functional genes such as vitellin, kinases and potential detoxification-related genes. We are now preparing a T. japonicus cDNA chip for molecular ecotoxicological studies. In this paper, we discuss the potential use of T. japonicus ESTs and their importance in ecotoxicology.