The Project
Entamoeba histolytica is the causal agent of amoebic dysentery and amoebic liver abscess. With an estimated 40 million cases worldwide and 100,000 deaths, it is responsible for agreat deal of suffering, particularly in the developing world.
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Pathogen Sequencing Unit, in collaboration with Graham Clark at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is sequencing the genome of E. histolytica HM-1:IMSS strain. The E. histolytica genome is ~24 Mb in size and split into 14 chromosomes. A whole genome shotgun sequence (8X coverage) has been produced in collaboration with The Institute of Genome Research and assembled into 888 scaffolds.
This draft sequence has been published (Loftus et al.) and finishing is now in progress.
Library construction
The genome of Entamoeba histolytica contains multi-copy DNA circles that easily clone in small insert libraries. Protocols (developed by Dr Egbert Tannich) have been employed to remove these from the genomic DNA to avoid redundancy. Circle free Genomic libraries were constructed in the pUC18 vector, However, we estimate the total quantity of clones containing multi-copy circle DNA to be around 5%.
Accessing the E. histolytica Sequence data
The draft genome sequence with preliminary automatated annotation is available in GeneDB. The sequence data can be downloaded by FTP
Searching the E. histolytica genomic sequence online
You can also search against E. histolytica genomic sequence using our online Entamoeba blast server.
