De novo transcriptome assembly of the African bullfrog Pyxicephalus adspersus for molecular analysis of aestivation

Abstract The molecular mechanisms of aestivation, a state of dormancy that occurs under dry conditions at ordinary temperature, are not yet clarified. Here, we report the first de novo transcriptome assembly of the African bullfrog Pyxicephalus adspersus, which aestivates for 6-10 months during the hot and dry season. Polyadenylated RNA from tissues was sequenced to 75,320,390 paired-end reads, and the de novo assembly generated 101,682 transcripts. Of these, 100,093 transcripts had open reading frames encoding more than 25 amino acids. BLASTx analysis against the Uniprot Xenopus tropicalis protein database revealed 64,963 transcripts having little homology with an E value higher than 1E-5 and 8,147 transcripts having no homology, indicating that the African bullfrog has many novel genes that are absent in X. tropicalis. The other 28,570 transcripts had homology with an E value lower than 1E-5 for which molecular functions were estimated by gene ontology (GO) analysis and found to contain the aestivation-related genes conserved among other aestivating organisms, including the African lungfish. This study is the first to identify a comprehensive set of genes expressed in the African bullfrog, thus providing basic information for molecular level analysis of aestivation.