EST Genetics Abbreviation

Expressed Sequence Tag

In genetics, an expressed sequence tag or EST is a short sub-sequence of a cDNA sequence. ESTs may be used to identify gene transcripts, and are instrumental in gene discovery and in gene-sequence determination. An EST results from one-short sequencing of a cloned cDNA. The cDNAs used for EST generation are typically individual clones from a cDNA library. The resulting sequence is a relatively low-quality fragment whose length is limited by current technology to approximately 500 to 800 nucleotides.