ARS | Publication request: ESTs from the microsporidian Edhazardia aedis.

Submitted to: Electronic Publication
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 20, 2008
Publication Date: June 20, 2008
Citation: Gill, E.E., Becnel, J.J., Fast, N.M. 2008. ESTs from the microsporidian Edhazardia aedis. BMC Genomics. 9:296.

Interpretive Summary: Naturally occurring protozoan parasites (Microsporidia) of mosquitoes are under study to evaluate and develop these disease causing organisms as biological control agents. Microsporidian parasites are known to cause mortality in mosquitoes worldwide, but fundamental knowledge on the genomes of mosquito microsporidia is unknown. This genomic investigation conducts an analysis, for the first time, on the genome of the mosquito microsporidian Edhazardia aedis. The new information obtained here contributes to our basic understanding of the organization of the genomes of these parasites which will assist in the evaluation and development of microsporidia as biocontrol agents.

Technical Abstract: Microsporidia are a group of parasites related to fungi that infect a wide variety of animals and have gained recognition from the medical community in the past 20 years due to their ability to infect immuno-compromised humans. Microsporidian genomes range in size from 2.3 to 19.5Mbp, but almost all of our knowledge comes from species that have small genomes (primarily from the human parasite Encephalitozoon cuniculi and the locust parasite Antonospora locustae). We have conducted an EST survey of the mosquito parasite Edhazardia aedis, which has an estimated genome size several times that of more well-studied