Analysis and functional annotation of expressed sequence tags from the diesel tree (Copaifera officinalis)

Abstract

Copaiba (Copaifera officinalis) is a tropical plant that is also known as the ‘diesel tree’, previously noted for production of diesel-like oleoresin. The advancements in molecular tools such as expressed sequence tag (EST) library construction provide a novel opportunity for insight into the physiology of this tree. We generated a small set of ESTs for a young copaiba, sequencing and annotating a total of 613 unigenes. Of these, 84% showed similarity to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. Annotation showed 70% of unigenes had at least one associated Gene Ontology (GO) term. We found a majority of ESTs to be associated with heat response genes. Based on these data, this EST library of C. officinalis represents a small but important step in helping to understand the general physiology and heat-response expression patterns. Additionally, this small collection of EST offers a modest starting point in helping to understand this enigmatic tropical plant.