Next Generation Sequencing and RNA-Seq Characterization of adipose tissue in the Nile crocodile v1

Next Generation sequencing by RNA-Seq of the adipose tissue in health and in pansteatitis was carried out in the Nile crocodile, with the aim of determining the role of adipose tissue in pansteatitis - a generalized inflammation of the adipose tissue that have been incriminated in the crocodile die offs amon the Nile crocodiles along Olifant River, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Healthy adipose tissue consisting of fifty samples was collected from the subcutaneous, visceral, intermuscular adipose tissues and the abdominal fat body of ten 4 years old juvenile crocodiles from a local crocodile farm in Pretoria, South Africa. Ten pansteatitis samples were collected from visceral and intermuscular adipose tissues of five crocodiles that were dying of pansteatitis. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) andde novoassembly of the adipose transcriptome, followed by differential gene expression analysis.