1000 Insect Transcriptome Evolution

1000 Insect Transcriptome Evolution
Name	1000 Insect Transcriptome Evolution
URL	1kite.org
Contact	o.niehuis.zfmk@uni-bonn.de
Data_types	Transcriptome data, Comparative genomics data
Resources/Tools

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unraveling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced using next generation sequencing techniques (NGS). Sequencing will be completed by the end of 2012.