Data from: Transcriptome-derived tetranucleotide microsatellites and their associated genes from the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

Recently, an increasing number of microsatellites (SSRs) have been found and characterized from transcriptome. Such SSRs can be employed as putative functional markers to easily tag corresponding genes, which play an important role in biomedical studies and genetic analysis. However, the transcriptome-derived SSRs for giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are not yet available. In the present work, we identified and characterized 20 tetranucleotide microsatellite loci from a transcript database generated from the blood of giant panda. Furthermore, we assigned their predicted transcriptome locations: 16 loci were assigned to untranslated regions (UTRs) and 4 loci were assigned to coding regions (CDSs). Gene identities of 14 transcripts contained corresponding microsatellites were determined, which provide useful information to study the potential contribution of SSRs to gene regulation in giant panda. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.293 to 0.789 with an average of 0.603 for the 16 UTRs-derived SSRs. Interestingly, four CDS-derived microsatellites developed in our study were also polymorphic, and the instability of these four CDS-derived SSRs was further validated by re-genotyping and sequencing. The genes contained these four CDS-derived SSRs were embedded with various types of repeat motifs. The interaction of all the length-changing SSRs might provide a way against coding region frameshift caused by microsatellite instability. We hope these newly gene-associated biomarkers would pave the way for genetic and biomedical studies for giant panda in the future. In sum, this set of transcriptome-derived markers complements the genetic resources available for giant panda.近年来，越来越多的微卫星（Simple Sequence Repeats, SSR）从转录组中被发掘并得到鉴定。这类SSR可作为推定功能标记，便捷地标定对应的基因，在生物医学研究与遗传分析中发挥重要作用。然而，目前尚无针对大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）的转录组来源SSR标记。 本研究从大熊猫血液样本构建的转录组数据库中，鉴定并表征了20个四核苷酸微卫星位点。此外，我们确定了这些位点的预测转录组定位：其中16个位点定位于非翻译区（Untranslated Regions, UTRs），4个位点定位于编码区（Coding Sequences, CDSs）。我们对14个携带有对应微卫星的转录本完成了基因功能注释，这为研究SSR在大熊猫基因调控中的潜在贡献提供了宝贵信息。 针对16个来源于UTR的SSR，其多态信息含量（Polymorphic Information Content, PIC）值范围为0.293至0.789，平均值为0.603。有趣的是，本研究开发的4个来源于CDS的微卫星同样具有多态性，我们通过重分型实验与测序进一步验证了这4个CDS来源SSR的不稳定性。携带这4个CDS来源SSR的基因均嵌合有多种类型的重复基序。所有发生长度变异的SSR之间的相互作用，或许可成为抵御微卫星不稳定性引发的编码区移码突变的一种途径。 我们期望这些新开发的基因关联生物标记，能够为未来大熊猫的遗传与生物医学研究铺平道路。综上，这套转录组来源的标记丰富了大熊猫现有的遗传资源库。