<<AUGUST 2010: 2.5mb of new sequence added containing 1207 predicted genes>>

<<FEBRUARY 2011: 0.8mb of new sequence added containing 368 predicted genes>>

<<JULY 2011: Draft whole genome assembly (10311 scaffolds, 49.1Mbp, 16-18k ORFs) available to download from the Sanger ftp site, ftp://ftp.sanger.ac.uk/pub/pathogens/Bodo/saltans>>

The Organism

The Kinetoplastida (Euglenozoa) are unicellular flagellates that include the trypanosomatid parasites, most notably Trypanosoma brucei, T. cruzi and Leishmania spp. These organisms cause substantial mortality and morbidity in humans and their livestock worldwide as the causative agents of African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis respectively. Draft genome sequences are available for several species of both Trypanosoma and Leishmania, many of which are described elsewhere in these pages. Bodo saltans is a free-living heterotroph found worldwide in freshwater and marine habitats. It is a kinetoplastid, but not a trypanosomatid, and possesses the diagnostic kinetoplastid features, such as flagella sited within a specialised flagellar pocket, glycolytic processes confined to a glycosome, and the characteristic concentration of mitochondrial DNA in a kinetoplast.

Bodo saltans was kindly provided by Professor Julius Lukeš of the University of South Bohemia; we have called this strain 'konstanz'.

The Genome

A pilot study that described ~400kbp of B. saltans genome sequenced from a whole genome fosmid library has been published (Jackson, Quail & Berriman 2008, BMC Genomics, 9:594) These fosmid inserts can be viewed in GeneDB and are available for download. The WTSI is undertaking complete genome sequencing of B. saltans through a combination of multiple technologies: i) A pre-sequencing selection stage involving 'Sanger' sequencing of fosmid ends for a 4X genomic library; ii) Illumina sequencing of pooled bodonid fosmid inserts; iii) Illumina sequencing of whole genomic DNA.

The Database

The most recent annotations for fosmid inserts from the pilot study can be found in GeneDB. GeneDB has been funded by Wellcome Trust to provide full curation support for kinetoplastida genomes to meet the needs of the community. As new B. saltans data appears, it will be annotated and added to GeneDB in comparison with the genomes of trypanosomatid parasites.

Data Release

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 any analyses of the sequence, its properties or its content.