The genomic basis of parasitism in the Strongyloides clade of nematodes.
Vicky L HuntIsheng J TsaiAvril CoghlanAdam J ReidNancy HolroydBernardo J FothAlan TraceyJames A CottonEleanor J StanleyHelen BeasleyHayley M BennettKaren BrooksBhavana HarshaRei KajitaniArpita KulkarniDorothee HarbeckeEiji NagayasuSarah NicholYoshitoshi OguraMichael A QuailNadine RandleDong XiaNorbert W BrattigHanns SoblikDiogo M RibeiroAlejandro Sanchez-FloresTetsuya HayashiTakehiko ItohDee R DenverWarwick GrantJonathan D StoltzfusJames B LokHaruhiko MurayamaJonathan WastlingAdrian StreitTaisei KikuchiMark VineyMatthew BerrimanPublished in: Nature genetics (2016)
Soil-transmitted nematodes, including the Strongyloides genus, cause one of the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases. Here we compare the genomes of four Strongyloides species, including the human pathogen Strongyloides stercoralis, and their close relatives that are facultatively parasitic (Parastrongyloides trichosuri) and free-living (Rhabditophanes sp. KR3021). A significant paralogous expansion of key gene families--families encoding astacin-like and SCP/TAPS proteins--is associated with the evolution of parasitism in this clade. Exploiting the unique Strongyloides life cycle, we compare the transcriptomes of the parasitic and free-living stages and find that these same gene families are upregulated in the parasitic stages, underscoring their role in nematode parasitism.