title: The genome project of Taenia solium.
abstract: We have constituted a consortium of key laboratories at the National Autonomous University of Mexico to carry out a genomic project for Taenia solium. This project will provide powerful resources for the study of taeniasis/cysticercosis, and, in conjunction with the Echinococcus granulosus and Echinococcus multilocularis genome project of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), will mark the advent of genomics for cestode parasites. Our project is planned in two consecutive stages. The first stage is being carried out to determine some basic parameters of the T. solium genome. Afterwards, we will evaluate the best strategy for the second stage, a full blown genome project. We have estimated the T. solium genome size by two different approaches: cytofluorometry on isolated cyton nuclei, as well as a probabilistic calculation based on approximately 2000 sequenced genomic clones, approximately 3000 ESTs, resulting in size estimates of 270 and 251 Mb, respectively. In terms of sequencing, our goal for the first stage is to characterize several thousand EST's (from adult worm and cysticerci cDNA libraries) and genomic clones. Results obtained so far from about 16,000 sequenced ESTs from the adult stage, show that only about 40% of the T. solium coding sequences have a previously sequenced homologue. Many of the best hits are found with mammalian genes, especially with humans. However, 1.5% of the hits lack homologues in humans, making these genes immediate candidates for investigation on pharmaco-therapy, diagnostics and vaccination. Most T. solium ESTs are related to gene regulation, and signal transduction. Other important functions are housekeeping, metabolism, cell division, cytoskeleton, proteases, vacuolar transport, hormone response, and extracellular matrix activities. Preliminary results also suggest that the genome of T. solium is not highly repetitive.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aguilar-Díaz
authors.forename: Raúl J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bobes
authors.forename: Julio C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Carrero
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Camacho-Carranza
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cervantes
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Cevallos
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dávila
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Dorantes
authors.forename: Galileo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Escobedo
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Gladis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fragoso
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gaytán
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garciarubio
authors.forename: Victor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Marco V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: José
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Laclette
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Landa
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Larralde
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morales-Montor
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morett
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ostoa-Saloma
authors.forename: Edda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sciutto
authors.forename: Rosa I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Santamaría
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Soberón
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de la Torre
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Valdés
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yánez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003551:Cysticercosis / Q000469:parasitology; D003552:Cysticercus; D049751:Genome, Helminth; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D041201:Taenia solium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development