obtainaninitialoverviewofgenepersityandexpressionpatterninporcinethymus,11,712ESTs(ExpressedSequenceTags)from100-day-oldporcinethymus(FTY)weresequencedand7,071cleanedESTswereusedforgeneexpressionanalysis.ClusteredbythePHRAPprogram,959contigsand3,074singletswereobtained.Blastsearchshowedthat806contigsand1,669singlets(totally5,442ESTs)hadhomologuesinGenBankand1,629ESTswerenovel.AccordingtotheGeneOntologyclassification,36.99%ESTswerecatalogedintothegeneexpressiongroup,indicatingthatalthoughthefunctionalgene(18.78%indefensegroup)ofthymusisexpressedinacertaindegree,the100-day-oldporcinethymusstillexistsinadevelopmentalstage.Comparativeanalysisshowedthatthegeneexpressionpatternofthe100-day-oldporcinethymusissimilartothatofthehumaninfantthymus.
