Project description:Here, we have started to characterise the surface molecules of T. theileri at the biochemical level. We have applied the same differential solvent extraction and hydrophobic interaction chromatography protocols, developed by Almeida and colleagues [13,14] to those used to isolate the GPI-mucin and GIPL fractions of T. theileri. As a positive control, we processed epimastigotes of T. cruzi Silvio X10/7 strain alongside tissue culture forms of T. theileri Edinburgh strain and so also report on the surface molecules of the Silvio X10/7 strain of T. cruzi for the first time.
Project description:The Zika outbreak, spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, highlights the need to create high-quality assemblies of large genomes in a rapid and cost-effective fashion. Here, we combine Hi-C data with existing draft assemblies to generate chromosome-length scaffolds. We validate this method by assembling a human genome, de novo, from short reads alone (67X coverage, Sample GSM1551550). We then combine our method with draft sequences to create genome assemblies of the mosquito disease vectors Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus, each consisting of three scaffolds corresponding to the three chromosomes in each species. These assemblies indicate that virtually all genomic rearrangements among these species occur within, rather than between, chromosome arms. The genome assembly procedure we describe is fast, inexpensive, accurate, and can be applied to many species.
Project description:Culex pipiens molestus and Cx. p. quinquefasciatus are the members of Culex pipiens Complex, but they display relatively large differences in behavior and physiological responses. We compared the genes of these mosquitoes to identify those that were differentially expressed in each subspecies. Such genes could play important roles in subspecies-specific blood feeding or oviposition behavior. Culex pipiens molestus and Cx. p. quinquefasciatus females were undertaken Illumina RNA sequencing.
