A survey of expressed genes in the leukocytes of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, infected with Hirame rhabdovirus

We constructed a cDNA library of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, leukocytes that were infected with Hirame rhabdovirus (HRV) in order to analyze some of the genes that are induced and expressed by virus infection in the immune system. Four hundred and fifty-two partial sequences representing 300 cDNA clones were obtained from the 5' and/or 3' ends of inserts derived from the Japanese flounder leukocyte cDNA library. About three-quarters of the 300 cDNA clones (217 clones, 72.3%) represented known genes in the public databases, whereas the remaining 83 (27.7%) of the clones did not show any significant homology with the sequences in the public databases. Clones matching known genes were classified into 12 categories according to their function or distribution. Only 40 (18.4%) of the 217 known genes showed homology with fish genes deposited in the database. Thirty (10%) of the clones, encoding 21 different sequences, and representing several categories, were identified as putative biodefense genes or genes associated with the immune response. Nineteen of the 21 putative biodefense or immune response-related cDNAs have not been previously reported in fish genes or cDNAs.