Although bivalves are among the most studied marine organisms due to their ecological role, economic importance and use in pollution biomonitoring, very little information is available on the genome sequences of mussels. This study reports the functional analysis of a large-scale Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequencing from different tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis (the Mediterranean mussel) challenged with toxic pollutants, temperature and potentially pathogenic bacteria. We have constructed and sequenced seventeen cDNA libraries from different Mediterranean mussel tissues with a total of 24,939 clones This annotated catalogue represents a valuable platform for expression studies, marker validation and genetic linkage analysis for investigations in the biology of Mediterranean mussels.
