In July 2005, the megabase complement of the genome of T. brucei strain 927 was published along with the genomes of Leishmania major and Trypanosoma cruzi as well as a paper describing the comparative gene content and architecture of the 3 parasites.
Project History
Beowulf Genomics funded a pilot scheme to sequence chromosome Ia of T. brucei as a collaboration with Professor Keith Gull (University of Oxford) and Dr. Sara Melville (University of Cambridge) within the framework of the World Health Organisation T. brucei Genome Project. Further details of this project can be found at http://parsun1.path.cam.ac.uk.In April 2000, the Wellcome Trust, via its Beowulf Genomics Initiative, awarded more funding to the T.brucei genome project at the Sanger Institute to sequence chromosomes IX (3.5 Mb), X (4.4 Mb) and XI (5.2 Mb) in collaboration with Dr. Sara Melville and the WHO/TDR supported T. brucei Genome Network.
At around the same time, NIAID funded TIGR to sequence chromosomes II to VIII in collaboration with Drs. John Donelson (University of Iowa), Sara Melville (University of Cambridge) and Elisabetta Ullu (Yale University).
Progress Overview
The table below gives an overview of the various sequencing stages each one of T. brucei's eleven megabase chromosomes is at and by which centre each is sequenced.
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| Chromosome | Size (Mb)* | Status | Sequencing Centre | ||
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| I a/b | 1.15/1.2 | Complete | Sanger | ||
| II a/b | 1.25/1.3 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| III a/b | 1.62/1.75 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| IV a/b | 1.62/1.75 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| V a/b | 1.68/1.75 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| VI a/b | 1.7/2.0 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| VII a/b | 2.1/2.1 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| VIII a/b | 2.1/2.2 | Complete | TIGR | ||
| IX a/b | 3.3/3.5 | In annotation and finishing | Sanger | ||
| X a/b | 4.4/4.4 | In annotation and finishing | Sanger | ||
| XI a/b | 5.2/5.2 | In annotation and finishing | Sanger | ||
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* Size estimated from pulsed field gels (see chromosome nomenclature).
The Sanger Institute is actively continuing to finish chromosomes IX, X and XI in order to remove the few remaining gaps. Annotation and curation of the whole T. brucei genome sequence is ongoing. Please refer to GeneDB for the current data release (version 4) and further information regarding changes in gene structure and annotation.
