RNA Sequencing-Based Identification of Candidate Hypersensitive Transcripts in Perna viridis

The Asian Green Lipped mussel, Perna viridis one of the widely distributed bivalves act as a source of low cost protein providing nutritious meal to the coastal population in the form of well balanced amino acids and micronutrients. The immune system produces antibodies to certain class of proteins present in shellfish meat thereby causing hypersensitive reactions in the body. The next generation integrated transcriptome sequencing approach identifies all the potential allergenic proteins expressed in an animal very effectively. The present study describes the transcriptome of P. viridis based on the sequence data generated using five tissues. Transcriptome level candidate allergens and epitopes were observed and identified that might play a role in hypersensitive reaction to shellfish proteins including certain novel candidate allergens like Ran protein and a filamin A like protein. The existence of epitope hotspots in an important protein, arginine kinase was also observed and the unigenes identified would be a valuable resource for conduct of functional studies.