Pneumocystis carinii

Pneumocystis carinii is an extracellular lung pathogen, which causes pneumonia in immunocompromised hosts. It is recognised as a major infection of patients with HIV and individuals undergoing organ transplantation, chemotherapy or those with congenital deficiencies.

Although P. carinii is classified as a fungus, it is insensitive to standard antifungal agents. It is also unusual in that antigenic switching of the major surface glycoprotein (MSG) has been demonstrated.

[Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Candida_albicans.jpg]

Published Genome Data

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has sequenced 10 cosmid clones. Of these cosmids, 2 contained telomeric DNA and 8 sub-telomeric DNA. These regions are known to be important for MSG gene switching in P. carinii . This project was being carried out in collaboration with Professor Ann Wakefield, Dr. Edward Louis at the University of Oxford, Department of Biochemistry and Dr. J.R. Stringer at the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati.

Related links

General

Data Use Statement

This sequencing centre plans on publishing the completed and annotated sequences in a peer-reviewed journal as soon as possible. Permission of the principal investigator should be obtained before publishing analyses of the sequence/open reading frames/genes on a chromosome or genome scale. See our data sharing policy.

Sequencing enquiries

Please address all sequencing enquiries to: pathinfo@sanger.ac.uk

* quick link - http://q.sanger.ac.uk/9svoflnv