approach is taken to identify known genes for adhesive proteins of interest for this method pcr polymerase chain reaction primers are designed for the genes of interest based on available nucleotide and amino acid sequences from m edulis and other mussel species the primers are combined with total rna isolated from the foot organ of m edulis in an rt pcr reverse transcription followed by pcr reaction to yield a product corresponding to the gene of interest this cdna c u201c complementary u201d product is then inserted cloned into a plasmid vector currently obtained from a vendor the clone for the adhesive gene of interest is now packaged for analysis by dna sequencing and for insertion transformation into a suitable host for recombinant protein expression dna sequencing of the clone is critical in 1 determining that the clone is full length e g contains the start and stop signal for translation of the full gene to protein and 2 identifying variants in any of the gene sequences in the second reverse genetics approach a cdna library is constructed from rna isolated from the foot organ of m edulis this library consists of individual clones in wells of a microtiter plate high throughput dna sequencing of the microtiter plates containing the clones followed by analysis using available bioinformatics software programs will enable 1 a determination of all of the genes presently expressed in the foot of the mussel and 2 a determination of known and possibly novel adhesive proteins expressed in the foot of the mussel the treatment of mussels prior to excision of their foot organ for rna isolation e g exposure to various surfaces water conditions may play.