Transcriptome Assembly of Asian Buffalo Leech Hirudinaria Manillensis and An Accurate Identification of Genes Involved in Anticoagulant Biosynthesis

Abstract Background: The Asian buffalo leech Hirudinaria manillensis is a valuable animal widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure blood-clotting. However, although the content of the anticoagulant genes in H. manillensis were identified, their actual expression profile remains undetermined. Herein, in this study we conducted transcriptome analysis on this species to address this subject.Results: A high qualified accurate gene expression profile of H. manillensis transcripts was obtained. By identifying genes upregulated during feeding, anticoagulant-related genes and signaling pathways were identified. The assembled Unigenes were compared in various mainstream databases, and a total of 16,682 Unigenes received annotation information. In addition, the Unigenes were evaluated in terms of length distribution, GC content, and expression level. The data showed good sequencing quality and high reliability. A total of 155 anticoagulant-related genes were found in this study, including those involved in different types of degradation of the extracellular matrix and inhibition of platelet aggregation.Conclusions：Substantial transcriptome information was obtained by transcriptome sequencing of H. manillensis. This information should help to provide a further molecular theoretical basis for functional gene analysis, genomics, genetic diversity analysis, and molecular marker development of H. manillensis and for the anticoagulation-related genes of this species and its medicinal value as an anticoagulant.