title: Exploring transcriptional conservation between Ancylostoma caninum and Haemonchus contortus by oligonucleotide microarray and bioinformatic analyses.
abstract: In this study, we identified, using an established oligonucleotide microarray platform for the parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus, transcripts that are 'conserved' between serum-activated and non-activated L3s of Ancylostoma caninum (aL3 and L3, respectively) and H. contortus by cross-species hybridization (CSH) at high stringency and conducted extensive bioinformatic analyses of the cross-hybridizing expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The microarray analysis revealed significant differential hybridization between aL3 and L3 for 32 molecules from A. caninum, of which 29 were shown to have homologues/orthologues in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and/or A. caninum and the other three molecules had no homologues in current gene databases. 'Non-wildtype' RNAi phenotypes were recorded for 13 of the C. elegans homologues. A subset of 16 C. elegans homologues/orthologues (i.e. genes abce-1, act-2, C08H9.2, C55F2.1, calu-1, col-181, cpr-6, elo-2, asp-1, K07E3.4, rpn-2, sel-9, T28C12.4, hsb-1, Y57G11C.15 and ZK593.1) were predicted to interact genetically with a total of 156 (range 1-88) other genes. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the interacting genes revealed that the most common subcategories were signal transduction (7%), intracellular protein transport and glycolysis (6.2%) within 'biological process'; nuclear (25.7%) and intracellular (19.8%) within 'cellular component'; and ATP-binding (14.4%) and protein-binding (8.4%) within 'molecular function'. The potential roles of key molecules in the two blood-feeding parasitic nematodes are discussed in relation to the known roles of their homologues/orthologues in C. elegans. The CSH approach used may provide a tool for the screening of genes conserved across a range of different taxa of parasites for which DNA microarray platforms are not available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, 250 Princes Highway, Werribee, Victoria 3030, Australia.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cantacessi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loukas
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mulvenna
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Ong
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Sternberg
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Otranto
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Gasser
mesh_terms: D000722:Ancylostoma / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology; D015342:DNA Probes; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D006189:Haemonchus / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes