Journal article
Genome of the human hookworm Necator americanus
YT Tang, X Gao, BA Rosa, S Abubucker, K Hallsworth-Pepin, J Martin, R Tyagi, E Heizer, X Zhang, V Bhonagiri-Palsikar, P Minx, WC Warren, Q Wang, B Zhan, PJ Hotez, PW Sternberg, A Dougall, ST Gaze, J Mulvenna, J Sotillo Show all
Nature Genetics | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1038/ng.2875
Open access
Abstract
The hookworm Necator americanus is the predominant soil-transmitted human parasite. Adult worms feed on blood in the small intestine, causing iron-deficiency anemia, malnutrition, growth and development stunting in children, and severe morbidity and mortality during pregnancy in women. We report sequencing and assembly of the N. americanus genome (244 Mb, 19,151 genes). Characterization of this first hookworm genome sequence identified genes orchestrating the hookworm's invasion of the human host, genes involved in blood feeding and development, and genes encoding proteins that represent new potential drug targets against hookworms. N. americanus has undergone a considerable and unique expan..
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Awarded by National Institutes of Health
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the faculty and staff of the Genome Institute at Washington University and the Protein Microarray Laboratory at the University of California-Irvine (U54AI065359) who contributed to this study. The genome sequencing and annotation work was funded by US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Human Genome Research Institute grant U54HG003079 to R.K.W. Comparative genome analysis was funded by grants NIH-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases AI081803 and NIH-National Institute of General Medical Sciences GM097435 to M.M. Funds from the Australian Research Council and Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council to R.B.G. are gratefully acknowledged. P.W.S. is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We thank the faculty and staff of The Genome Institute at Washington University who contributed to this study.