<p>The desert ant Cataglyphis fortis lives in the Sahara desert where it is exposed to extreme temperatures up to 70° C. In other words, the organism is considered as a thermophile. Until now the genome remains unknown but the fact that C. fortis provides heat stable proteins makes it very interesting in the field of protein studies and maybe even therapeutical research later on. This thesis focuses on trying to find genes that are expressed in C. fortis. Different genes were chosen and capable primers designed. After fishing for the enzyme GAPDH a fragment was found and sequenced. The sequence showed 31% homology on amino acid level with protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) in Apis mellifera (honey bee) and Drosophila melanogaster (fruitfly). The received sequence can be used to design new primers that match exactly. Gene fishing can also be continued by using the other primers that were designed during this project.</p>

The desert ant Cataglyphis fortis lives in the Sahara desert where it is exposed to extreme temperatures up to 70° C. In other words, the organism is considered as a thermophile. Until now the genome remains unknown but the fact that C. fortis provides heat stable proteins makes it very interesting in the field of protein studies and maybe even therapeutical research later on. This thesis focuses on trying to find genes that are expressed in C. fortis. Different genes were chosen and capable primers designed. After fishing for the enzyme GAPDH a fragment was found and sequenced. The sequence showed 31% homology on amino acid level with protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) in Apis mellifera (honey bee) and Drosophila melanogaster (fruitfly). The received sequence can be used to design new primers that match exactly. Gene fishing can also be continued by using the other primers that were designed during this project.