Clustering of Schistosoma mansoni mRNA sequences and analysis of the most transcribed genes: implications in metabolism and biology of different developmental stages.
The study of the Schistosoma mansoni genome, one of the etiologic agents of human schistosomiasis, is essential for a better understanding of the biology and development of this parasite. In order to get an overview of all S. mansoni catalogued gene sequences, we performed a clustering analysis of the parasite mRNA sequences available in public databases. This was made using softwares PHRAP and CAP3. The consensus sequences, generated after the alignment of cluster constituent sequences, allowed the identification by database homology searches of the most expressed genes in the worm. We analyzed these genes and looked for a correlation between their high expression and parasite metabolism and biology. We observed that the majority of these genes is related to the maintenance of basic cell functions, encoding genes whose products are related to the cytoskeleton, intracellular transport and energy metabolism. Evidences are presented here that genes for aerobic energy metabolism are expressed in all the developmental stages analyzed. Some of the most expressed genes could not be identified by homology searches and may have some specific functions in the parasite.
Prosdocimi
Francisco
F
Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brasil.
Faria-Campos
Alessandra C
AC
Peixoto
Fabiano C
FC
Pena
Sérgio D J
SD
Ortega
José M
JM
Franco
Glória R
GR
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015723:Gene Library; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D012333:RNA, Messenger