Exploring a leaf-cutter ant gene
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Find the Atta cephalotes LOC105618535 gene on Ensembl Metazoa.
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How long is its transcript? How long is the protein it encodes? How many exons does it have? Are any of the exons completely or partially untranslated?
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Export the sequence of the gene, cDNA and protein in FASTA format.
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Go to the Ensembl Metazoa homepage. Select Atta cephalotes (Leaf-cutter ant) from the species list and type LOC105618535 in the search box. Click Go. Click on LOC10561855.
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Click on Show transcript table.
The transcript is 3451 base pairs and the length of the encoded protein is 810 amino acids.
Click on the Ensembl Transcript ID XM_012200067.1 in the transcript table.
It has nine exons.
Click on Sequence - Exons in the side menu.
The last exon is partially untranslated (sequence shown in orange). This can also been seen from the fact that in the transcript diagram on the Gene summary and Transcript summary pages the boxes representing the last exon is partially unfilled.
- Click on the blue Export data button. Under Options for FASTA sequence, select Genomic: Unmasked, cDNA and Peptide sequence. Click Next>. Click on Text.
This returns three sequences (one gene, one transcript and one protein sequence).
