Table 2.
Functional Categorization Using 454 Nonredundant Sequences
| Molecular functions | Frequency (%) | Nonredundant (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Structural protein | 4324 (82.0%) | 115 (25.3%) |
| Enzyme | 231 (4.4%) | 111 (24.4%) |
| Ligand binding or carrier | 357 (6.8%) | 47 (10.4%) |
| Nucleic acid binding | 96 (1.8%) | 44 (9.7%) |
| Ribosomal protein | 71 (1.3%) | 39 (8.6%) |
| Transporter | 43 (0.8%) | 25 (5.5%) |
| Signal transducer | 60 (1.0%) | 22 (4.8%) |
| Enzyme regulator | 22 (0.4%) | 13 (2.9%) |
| Obsolete | 27 (0.5%) | 10 (2.2%) |
| Chaperone | 12 (0.2%) | 7 (1.5%) |
| Defence/Immunity protein | 10 (0.2%) | 7 (1.5%) |
| Cell adhesion molecule | 6 (0.1%) | 5 (1.1%) |
| Cell cycle regulator | 5 (0.1%) | 4 (0.9%) |
| Apotosis regulator | 6 (0.1%) | 2 (0.4%) |
| Motor | 2 (0.0%) | 2 (0.4%) |
| Chaperone regulator | 1 (0.0%) | 1 (0.2%) |
| Total | 5273 (100.0%) | 454 (100.0%) |
The most highly expressed genes are those encoding for structural proteins, which are essential for the maintenance of cell and organ structures. In the present study, we used 1509 nonredundant sequences that consisted of 5273 clones obtained from “cDNA library A (whole eye).” This library represents the gene expression of whole octopus eyes. Of the 1509 nonredundant sequences, we assigned the molecular function of gene ontology terms to 454 genes, representing 30% of 1509 genes. The expression frequency for structural proteins is 4324 times in ESTs, whereas the rest of the 949 times are related to proteins having other functions. Among the expression frequency of 4324, crystalline genes occupy a large portion, ∼40% of the entire ESTs.