Ascaris suum has been the focus of research on the nematode neuromuscular system for over a century. One of its attractions is the ability to expose and measure electrophysiologically from and test neurotransmitters and drugs directly on nerves and muscles in situ and in isolated preparations. An EST dataset will identify genes involved in neuromuscular function, and suggest new drug targets. Ascaris adults are 15 cm long: this size will permit us to construct and sample from tissue-specific libraries. The Sanger Institute Pathogen Genomics group is sequencing 25,000 cDNAs from this organism in collaboration with Mark Blaxter at the University of Edinburgh.

The sequences can be downloaded from the ftp site. For more information about parasitic nematodes and related genome progects see the Blaxter Lab web site .