title: Draft genome of neurotropic nematode parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, causative agent of human eosinophilic meningitis.
abstract: Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a bursate nematode parasite that causes eosinophilic meningitis (or meningoencephalitis) in humans in many parts of the world. The genomic data from A. cantonensis will form a useful resource for comparative genomic and chemogenomic studies to aid the development of diagnostics and therapeutics. We have sequenced, assembled and annotated the genome of A. cantonensis. The genome size is estimated to be ∼260 Mb, with 17,280 genomic scaffolds, 91X coverage, 81.45% for complete and 93.95% for partial score based on CEGMA analysis of genome completeness. The number of predicted genes of ≥300 bp was 17,482. A total of 7737 predicted protein-coding genes of ≥50 amino acids were identified in the assembled genome. Among the proteins of known function, kinases are the most abundant followed by transferases. The draft genome contains 34 excretory-secretory proteins (ES), a minimum of 44 Nematode Astacin (NAS) metalloproteases, 12 Homeobox (HOX) genes, and 30 neurotransmitters. The assembled genome size (260 Mb) is larger than those of Pristionchus pacificus, Caenorhabditis elegans, Necator americanus, Caenorhabditis briggsae, Trichinella spiralis, Brugia malayi and Loa loa, but smaller than Haemonchus contortus and Ascaris suum. The repeat content (25%) is similar to H. contortus. The GC content (41.17%) is lower compared to P. pacificus (42.7%) and H. contortus (43.1%) but higher compared to C. briggsae (37.69%), A. suum (37.9%) and N. americanus (40.2%) while the scaffold N50 is 42,191. This draft genome will facilitate the understanding of many unresolved issues on the parasite and the disorder it causes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Hoi-Sen
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Yong
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10700, Thailand. Electronic address: praphathip.eam@mahidol.ac.th.
authors.forename: Praphathip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eamsobhana
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Phaik-Eem
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Sengenics HIR, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Rozaimi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Razali
authors.affiliation: Sengenics HIR, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Farhanah Abdul
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.affiliation: Sengenics HIR, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Nurul Shielawati Mohamed
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Rosli
authors.affiliation: Sengenics HIR, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poole-Johnson
authors.affiliation: Sengenics HIR, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anwar
mesh_terms: D017185:Angiostrongylus cantonensis / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000469:parasitology*; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008590:Meningoencephalitis / Q000469:parasitology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D051381:Rats
keywords: Angiostrongylus cantonensis; Excretory–secretory proteins; Genome; Homeobox genes; Kinases; Metalloproteases; Neurotransmitters; Transferases