Journal article

The small RNA complement of adult Schistosoma haematobium

AJ Stroehlein, ND Young, PK Korhonen, RS Hall, AR Jex, BL Webster, D Rollinson, PJ Brindley, RB Gasser

Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2018

Abstract

Background: Blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma cause schistosomiasis—a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that affects more than 200 million people worldwide. Studies of schistosome genomes have improved our understanding of the molecular biology of flatworms, but most of them have focused largely on protein-coding genes. Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) have been explored in selected schistosome species and are suggested to play essential roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes, and in modulating flatworm-host interactions. However, genome-wide small RNA data are currently lacking for key schistosomes including Schistosoma haematobium—the causative agent of urogenital schistos..

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Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) to RBG and NDY. Additional support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), Melbourne Water Corporation (Australia), Yourgene Bioscience (Taiwan) to RBG. Career Development Fellowships to NDY and ARJ, and Early Career Research Fellowship to PKK were from NHM RC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.