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Evolutionary and biomedical implications of a Schistosoma japonicum complementary DNA resource

Nature Genetics volume 35, pages 139–147 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Schistosoma japonicum causes schistosomiasis in humans and livestock in the Asia-Pacific region. Knowledge of the genome of this parasite should improve understanding of schistosome-host interactions, biomedical aspects of schistosomiasis and invertebrate evolution. We assigned 43,707 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) derived from adult S. japonicum and their eggs to 13,131 gene clusters. Of these, 35% shared no similarity with known genes and 75% had not been reported previously in schistosomes. Notably, S. japonicum encoded mammalian-like receptors for insulin, progesterone, cytokines and neuropeptides, suggesting that host hormones, or endogenous parasite homologs, could orchestrate schistosome development and maturation and that schistosomes modulate anti-parasite immune responses through inhibitors, molecular mimicry and other evasion strategies.

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Figure 1: Cluster distribution and comparative genomics analysis of the S. japonicum ESTs.
Figure 2: Phylogenetic analysis with neighbor-joining trees.
Figure 3: Isolation and characteristics of full-length cDNA of S. japonicum genes.
Figure 4: Predicted functions of S. japonicum transcripts based on gene ontology.
Figure 5: Analysis by semi-quantitative RT–PCR of differential developmental stage–specific and gender-specific expression trends of representative S. japonicum genes, based on differences in expression identified by random sampling of the ESTs.
Figure 6: Multiple sequence alignments of receptors conserved between S. japonicum and their hosts.

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Acknowledgements

The Chinese High-Tech Research and Development Program, Chinese National Key Program on Basic Research, National Foundation for Excellence Doctoral Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Commission for Science and Technology, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA, supported this work.

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Author notes

  1. Wei Hu, Qing Yan, Da-Kang Shen, Feng Liu, Zhi-Dong Zhu, Huai-Dong Song, Xiang-Ru Xu and Zheng Feng: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, 351 Guo shou-Jing Road, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Wei Hu, Qing Yan, Da-Kang Shen, Feng Liu, Zhi-Dong Zhu, Xiang-Ru Xu, Yi-Ping Rong, Ling-Chun Zeng, Jian Wu, Xin Zhang, Sheng-Yue Wang, Gang Fu, Xiang-Lin Zhang, Zhi-Qin Wang, Zhu Chen & Ze-Guang Han

  2. Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 207 Rui-Jin Road II, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Wei Hu, Ju-Jun Wang, Xue-Nian Xu & Zheng Feng

  3. Department of Parasitology, Shanghai Second Medical University, 280 South Chong-Qing Road, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Da-Kang Shen, Zhao-Jun Wang & Chun-Liang Xue

  4. State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Rui Jin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Second Medical University, 197 Rui-Jin Road II, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Huai-Dong Song & Zhu Chen

  5. Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, 1430 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, 70112, Louisiana, USA

    Paul J Brindley

  6. Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Australian Centre for International Health & Nutrition, 300 Herston Road, Brisbane, 4029, Queensland, Australia

    Donald P McManus

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Correspondence to Ze-Guang Han.

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Hu, W., Yan, Q., Shen, DK. et al. Evolutionary and biomedical implications of a Schistosoma japonicum complementary DNA resource. Nat Genet 35, 139–147 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1236

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