Transcriptional analysis of Schistosoma mansoni treated with praziquantel in vitro.

Schistosomiasis is one of the foremost health problems in developing countries and has been estimated to account for the loss of up to 56 million annual disability-adjusted life years. Control of the disease relies almost exclusively on praziquantel (PZQ) but this drug does not kill juvenile worms during the early stages of infection or prevent post-treatment reinfection. As the use of PZQ continues to grow, there are fears that drug resistance may become problematic thus there is a need to develop a new generation of more broadly effective anti-schistosomal drugs, a task that will be made easier by having an understanding of why PZQ kills sexually mature worms but fails to kill juveniles.

Differential transcriptomic responses of Biomphalaria glabrata (Gastropoda, Mollusca) to bacteria and metazoan parasites, Schistosoma mansoni and Echinostoma paraensei (Digenea, Platyhelminthes).

A 70-mer-oligonucleotide-based microarray (1152 features) that emphasizes stress and immune responses factors was constructed to study transcriptomic responses of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata to different immune challenges. In addition to sequences with relevant putative ID and Gene Ontology (GO) annotation, the array features non-immune factors and unknown B. glabrata ESTs for functional gene discovery.

Coccidian merozoite transcriptome analysis from Eimeria maxima in comparison to Eimeria tenella and Eimeria acervulina.

With the Eimeria spp. populations that infect chickens used as a model for coccidian biology, we aimed to survey the transcriptome of Eimeria maxima and contrast it to the 2 other Eimeria spp. for which transcriptome data are available, i.

Analysis of a set of Australian northern brown bandicoot expressed sequence tags with comparison to the genome sequence of the South American grey short tailed opossum.

Background: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have been used for rapid gene discovery in a variety of organisms and provide a valuable resource for whole genome annotation. Although the genome of one marsupial, the opossum Monodelphis domestica, has now been sequenced, no EST datasets have been reported from any marsupial species. In this study we describe an EST dataset from the bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus, providing information on the transcriptional profile of the bandicoot thymus and the opportunity for a genome wide comparison between the bandicoot and opossum, two distantly related marsupial species.