Along with improvements in assembly technology these advances have greatly enhanced the value of transcriptomes for the study of messages encoding for diverse genes in selected tissues or whole organisms, even in organs as small as the tick synganglion. Transcriptomes BEZ235 915019-65-7 provide an opportunity to examine at high resolution the entire repertoire of mRNA molecules expressed in a particular organ or tissue at a particular moment in time. Transcriptomes have proven useful for the study of gene expression of many arthropods, including mosquitoes, bedbugs and other arthropods, as well as selected organs, such as the transcriptome of the midgut of female D. variabilis and the male reproductive system of this same species. Here we present the first transcriptome of the synganglion of the black legged tick, I. scapularis, with identification of messages predicting neuropeptides, neuropeptide receptors, as well as receptors for neurotransmitters, oxidative stress peptides, reproduction-related peptides and many others in this important organ. We conducted BLAST matching against the published conspecific genome and gene sequence alignments which we believe are likely to increase the reliability of gene annotations in the relevant transcriptomes. Using Solexa/Illumina sequencing, we were able to create a large EST library with more than 100 million raw reads suitable for de novo transcriptome assembly and gene annotation/analysis. In view of the short read length characteristic of this technology at the time sequencing was done, we also used 454 pyrosequencing which was expected to offer significant advantages resulting from greater read length to help recognize messages predicting genes that might have been missed by Illumina sequencing. In this report, we compare the success of these two different technologies in identifying the many messages predicting genes of interest for our understanding of synganglion function in this important tick species. We believe that the assembled, annotated transcriptomes described in this report will provide an invaluable resource for future studies of the role of the genes involved in neurologic functioning of the tick nervous system. MiR-122, a liver-specific microRNA, constitutes more than 70% of the total miRNAs in adult human liver and regulates gene translation via binding to the 39 -untranslated region of its target messenger RNA. It has been reported that miR-122 is very important for maintaining liver function, such as the regulation of cholesterol and fatty-acid metabolism. Several miR-122 target genes, which contribute to tumour-genesis, have been identified, such as ADAM10, IGF1R, CCNG1, Bcl-v, and ADAM17, and low miR-122 levels are associated with hepatocellular carcinoma, for example, miR-122 level was frequently reduced in HCC tissue compared to non-tumour tissue, low miR-122 was also correlated with poor prognosis, and over-expression of miR-122 inhibited tumour cell growth. Taken together, these findings indicated that miR-122 is functioning as a tumour suppressor gene.