The contributions of the Genome Project to the study of schistosomiasis

Zerlotini, Adhemar; Oliveira, Guilherme

doi:10.1590/s0074-02762010000400003

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…However, S. haematobium, and in particular its genetic diversity, remains largely unstudied in comparison to S. mansoni , primarily due to the more demanding conditions for laboratory maintenance and a lack of available molecular markers for the former species. In the last 40 years, for example, there has been an almost 10-fold difference in the number of papers published on S. mansoni compared to S. haematobium (Rollinson, 2009), and molecular studies are particularly lagging behind, especially since the recent publication of complete genome sequences for both S. mansoni and S. japonicum (Webster et al 2010; Zerlotini and Oliveira, 2010). However, as recently reviewed by Rollinson (2009), there are many important biological, clinical and epidemiological differences between uro-genital and intestinal schistosomiasis that argues that further targeted research on S. haematobium is a research priority.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population genetics ofSchistosoma haematobium:development of novel microsatellite markers and their application to schistosomiasis control in Mali

et al. 2011

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The recent implementation of mass drug administration (MDA) for control of uro-genital schistosomiasis has identified an urgent need for molecular markers to both directly monitor the impact of MDA, for example to distinguish re-infections from uncleared infections, as well as understand aspects of parasite reproduction and gene flow which might predict evolutionary change, such as the development and spread of drug resistance. We report the development of a novel microsatellite tool-kit allowing, for the first time, robust genetic analysis of individual S. haematobium larvae collected directly from infected human hosts. We genotyped the parasite populations of 47 children from 2 schools in the Ségou region of Mali, the first microsatellite study of this highly neglected parasite. There was only limited evidence of population subdivision between individual children or between the two schools, suggesting that few barriers to gene flow exist in this population. Complex relationships between parasite reproductive success, infection intensity and host age and gender were identified. Older children and boys harboured more diverse infections, as measured by the number of unique adult genotypes present. Individual parasite genotypes had variable reproductive success both across hosts, a pre-requisite for evolutionary selection, and, phenotypically, in hosts of different ages and genders. These data serve as a baseline against which to measure the effect of treatment on parasite population genetics in this region of Mali, and the tools developed are suitable to further investigate this important pathogen, and its close relatives, throughout their range.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population genetics ofSchistosoma haematobium:development of novel microsatellite markers and their application to schistosomiasis control in Mali

et al. 2011

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“…Concerned about the ever‐growing amount of data and little integrated information, some groups mobilized efforts to develop databases and tools to compile the latest genome sequence, annotation, gene expression and regulation profiles, and predicted proteome and functional analysis (22). SchistoDB is one such initiative.…”

Section: Resources – Powerful Means Of Data Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SchistoDB is a relational database coupled with a powerful search engine (23) and ready access to the latest versions of S. mansoni nuclear and mitochondrial genome sequences and their annotation, in addition to SAGE, micro‐RNA and predicted proteome data. The database provides more than 30 different query and analytical tools as well as orthology information via the OrthoMCL group (24), which includes orthologous genes from 87 species, clustered based on sequence similarity, enabling protein function inference through evolutionary relationships (22). Moreover, this database integrates with SRI PathwayTools software (25) and the KEGG drug database (26), allowing the prediction of metabolic pathways (including 607 enzymatic reactions) combined with known orthologous drug target analysis.…”

Section: Resources – Powerful Means Of Data Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in Schistosoma genomics

Mourão¹,

Grunau²,

LoVerde³

et al. 2012

Parasite Immunology

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Schistosome research has entered the genomic era with the publications reporting the Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma japonicum genomes. Schistosome genomics is motivated by the need for new control tools. However, much can also be learned about the biology of Schistosoma, which is a tractable experimental model. In this article, we review the recent achievements in the field of schistosome research and discuss future perspectives on genomics and how it can be integrated in a usable format, on the genetic mapping and how it has improved the genome assembly and provided new research approaches, on how epigenetics provides interesting insights into the biology of the species and on new functional genomics tools that will contribute to the understanding of the function of genes, many of which are parasite- or taxon specific.

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“…Schistosome studies have truly entered a new stage with the recent publication of the S. mansoni [13, 62] and S. japonicum genomic sequence data [63]. It is now vital to investigate the functional roles of gene products to answer questions concerning the fundamental biology of these important human parasites.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Diversity of the Schistosoma mansoni Tyrosine Kinases

Avelar

Nahum

Andrade

et al. 2011

Journal of Signal Transduction

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Schistosoma mansoni, one of the causative agents of schistosomiasis, has a complex life cycle infecting over 200 million people worldwide. Such a successful and prolific parasite life cycle has been shown to be dependent on the adaptive interaction between the parasite and hosts. Tyrosine kinases (TKs) play a key role in signaling pathways as demonstrated by a large body of experimental work in eukaryotes. Furthermore, comparative genomics have allowed the identification of TK homologs and provided insights into the functional role of TKs in several biological systems. Finally, TK structural biology has provided a rational basis for obtaining selective inhibitors directed to the treatment of human diseases. This paper covers the important aspects of the phospho-tyrosine signaling network in S. mansoni, Caenorhabditis elegans, and humans, the main process of functional diversification of TKs, that is, protein-domain shuffling, and also discusses TKs as targets for the development of new anti-schistosome drugs.

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The contributions of the Genome Project to the study of schistosomiasis

Cited by 6 publications

References 20 publications

Population genetics ofSchistosoma haematobium:development of novel microsatellite markers and their application to schistosomiasis control in Mali

Population genetics ofSchistosoma haematobium:development of novel microsatellite markers and their application to schistosomiasis control in Mali

Recent advances in Schistosoma genomics

Functional Diversity of the Schistosoma mansoni Tyrosine Kinases

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