Strongyloides ratti
Strongyloides ratti is a common gastro-intestinal parasite of the rat. The adult parasites are female only, about 2mm long and live in the mucosa of the small intestine. These parasites produce eggs that pass out of the host in its faeces. In the environment infective larval stages develop either directly or after a facultative sexual free-living adult generation. Infective larvae infect hosts by skin penetration.
S. ratti is the laboratory analogue of the parasite of humans, S. stercoralis. S. stercoralis is a wide-spread parasite of humans, occurring principally in the tropics and sub-tropics: some 100-200 million people are infected worldwide. Infection of immunosuppressed individuals can result in disseminated strongyloidiasis, in which worms occur throughout the body. This can be fatal unless anti-Strongyloides therapy is given. Other species of Strongyloides parasitise a wide range of vertebrates.
Data Downloads
This is a Wellcome Trust funded project to sequence and analyse the nuclear genome of Strongyloides ratti with the goal of producing a reference quality genome sequence. Work is also underway to profile the transcriptome of the different life cycle stages of the parasite using high throughput second generation sequencing RNA-Seq.
We are collaborating with Mark Viney (University of Bristol), Fiona Thompson (University of Bristol), Adrian Streit (University of Tübingen) and Jonathan Wastling (University of Liverpool).
Related links
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
