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In order to characterize regulatory genes that are expressed in ovule tissues after fertilization we have undertaken an EST sequencing project in Solanum chacoense, a self-incompatible wild potato species. Two cDNA libraries made from ovule tissues covering embryo development from zygote to late torpedo-stage were constructed and plated at high density on nylon membranes. To decrease EST redundancy and enrich for transcripts corresponding to weakly expressed genes a self-probe subtraction method was used to select the colonies harboring the genes to be sequenced. 7741 good sequences were obtained and, from these, 6374 unigenes were isolated. Thus, the self-probe subtraction resulted in a strong enrichment in singletons, a decrease in the number of clones per contigs, and concomitantly, an enrichment in the total number of unigenes obtained (82%). To gain insights into signal transduction events occurring during embryo development all the receptor-like kinases (or protein receptor kinases) were analyzed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Interestingly, 28 out of the 30 RLK isolated were predominantly expressed in ovary tissues or young developing fruits, and 23 were transcriptionaly induced following fertilization. Thus, the self-probe subtraction did not select for genes weakly expressed in the target tissue while being highly expressed elsewhere in the plant. Of the receptor-like kinases (RLK) genes isolated, the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) family of RLK was by far the most represented with 25 members covering 11 LRR classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]