Draft genome of the filarial nematode parasite Brugia malayi

Elodie Ghedin*, Shiliang Wang, David Spiro, Elisabet Caler, Qi Zhao, Jonathan Crabtree, Jonathan E. Allen, Arthur L. Delcher, David B. Guiliano, Diego Miranda-Saavedra, Samuel V. Angiuoli, Todd Creasy, Paolo Amedeo, Brian Haas, Najib M. El-Sayed, Jennifer R. Wortman, Tamara Feldblyum, Luke Tallon, Michael Schatz, Martin ShumwayHean Koo, Steven L. Salzberg, Seth Schobel, Mihaela Pertea, Mihai Pop, Owen White, Geoffrey J. Barton, Clotilde K.S. Carlow, Michael J. Crawford, Jennifer Daub, Matthew W. Dimmic, Chris F. Estes, Jeremy M. Foster, Mehul Ganatra, William F. Gregory, Nicholas M. Johnson, Ming Jin, Richard Komuniecki, Ian Korf, Sanjay Kumar, Sandra Laney, Ben Wen Li, Wen Li, Tim H. Lindblom, Sara Lustigman, Dong Ma, Claude V. Maina, David M.A. Martin, James P. McCarter, Larry McReynolds, Makedonka Mitreva, Thomas B. Nutman, John Parkinson, José M. Peregrín-Alvarez, Catherine Poole, Qinghu Ren, Lori Saunders, Ann E. Sluder, Katherine Smith, Mario Stanke, Thomas R. Unnasch, Jenna Ware, Aguan D. Wei, Gary Weil, Deryck J. Williams, Yinhua Zhang, Steven A. Williams, Claire Fraser-Liggett, Barton Slatko, Mark L. Blaxter, Alan L. Scott

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

538 Scopus citations

Abstract

Parasitic nematodes that cause elephantiasis and river blindness threaten hundreds of millions of people in the developing world. We have sequenced the ∼90 megabase (Mb) genome of the human filarial parasite Brugia malayi and predict ∼11,500 protein coding genes in 71 Mb of robustly assembled sequence. Comparative analysis with the free-living, model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans revealed that, despite these genes having maintained little conservation of local synteny during ∼350 million years of evolution, they largely remain in linkage on chromosomal units. More than 100 conserved operons were identified. Analysis of the predicted proteome provides evidence for adaptations of B. malayi to niches in its human and vector hosts and insights into the molecular basis of a mutualistic relationship with its Wolbachia endosymbiont. These findings offer a foundation for rational drug design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1756-1760
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume317
Issue number5845
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Sep 2007
Externally publishedYes

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