Comparative transcriptomics reveals striking similarities between the bovine and feline isolates of Tritrichomonas foetus: consequences for in silico drug-target identification.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Few, if any, protozoan parasites are reported to exhibit extreme organ tropism like the flagellate Tritrichomonas foetus. In cattle, T. foetus infects the reproductive system causing abortion, whereas the infection in cats results in chronic large bowel diarrhoea. In the absence of a T. foetus genome, we utilized a de novo approach to assemble the transcriptome of the bovine and feline genotype to identify host-specific adaptations and virulence factors specific to each genotype. Furthermore, a subset of orthologs was used to characterize putative druggable targets and expose complications of in silico drug target mining in species with indefinite host-ranges.

Results

Illumina RNA-seq reads were assembled into two representative bovine and feline transcriptomes co

SUBMITTER: Morin-Adeline V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4247702 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature