Primer design

Genes of interest (GOI) were identified from whole genome RNAseq data from NWR fibroblasts, iPSCs, and EBs (unpublished data) that were aligned to cow and dog genomes for annotation. The cow and dog were chosen based on the quality of their genome assembly and annotation, which is lacking in rhinoceros at this time. We then aligned them to the SWR genome (http://genome.ucsc.edu/index.html) and identified scaffold locations. These locations were used to find the region of interest, and the Augustus ab initio gene predictions v3.1 program predicted coding regions for each gene. Primer pairs were designed using the Primer3 [29,30] web tool. With limited information currently available in the rhinoceros genome we cannot be certain that all splice variants of these genes were identified.