Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosomes are trematode parasites of which three main species are pathogenic for man and infect about 200 million people in 75 countries in the tropics and sub-tropics. They thus rank second in importance among the parasite pathogens of man. Only one drug, praziquantel, is currently effective against all species of schistosome and is exclusively used for their control. The appearance of strains of the parasite resistant or tolerant to the drug has been recently reported from two endemic areas. The “Schistosome Genome Project” was initiated and supported by the WHO with the aim of discovering novel chemotherapeutic targets and vaccine candidates. One of the priorities of the project is the construction of a physical map of the genome of Schistosoma mansoni with the eventual goal of systematic genome sequencing.

The recent construction of a large fragment BAC library with an approximate 8-fold genome coverage was the first step toward this goal. We now propose to sequence the ends of 10,000 BAC clones in order to generate 12-15,000 sequence tags (STC) that will greatly facilitate and accelerate the construction of a genome map, an indispensible tool for the preparation of a genome sequencing project.