#+TITLE: Notes * Methods ** Whole genome sequencing -> PacBio, along with Illumina for error correction in 1% of contig bases ** Development of a new genome assembler, due to the large genome size (x10 human size) -> MARVEL ** Verification of the genome assembly using non-exonic ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and generation of a gene catalogue using mRNA to determine if these coded for conserved eukaryotic genes ** Previously developed molecular toolkit -> germline transgenesis, CRISPR gene mutation, viral transfection... -> Identification of the regeneration cells * Findings ** The median intron size is quite large (12-17 times compared to humans) -> Smaller intron sizes in non-developmental genes, which could facilitate rapid transcription and upregulation - Pax family of genes: | Presence | Absence | | Pax10 | Pax7 | | | Pax3 | Pax3 and its cis-regulatory elements seem to be absent due to a deletion, although experiments performed using CRISPR mutate the gene show that Pax7 performs the functions of Pax3 along with the usual Pax7 functions in axolotl ** Limb regeneration *** Use of published mRNA and miRNA transcripts and the authors' own transcriptional profiling -> identification of 5 upregulated transcripts | Protein | Function | | similar to tectorin | Extracellular matrix | | Ly6 | uPAR surface receptor | *** Mapping non-coding RNAs -> 93 pre-miRNA, 42 novel miRNAs * Future work Model organism to study the evolutionary basis of its regeneration ability