The Disease

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Pathogen Sequencing Unit (PSU) has produced an improved high-quality draft genome sequence for the group 1 T. b. gambiense DAL 972 isolate using a whole-genome shotgun strategy. While the non-human-infective T. b. brucei is the preferred model organism for studying trypanosome biology, comparison with a human-infective organism is required to study mechanisms of disease. Human trypanosomiasis is caused by 2 other subspecies of T. brucei - T. b. rhodesiense and T. b. gambiense. T. b. rhodesiense is very similar to T. b. brucei, and so the genome sequence of T. b. brucei will provide information on both subspecies. However, T. b. gambiense stands apart, with profoundly different biological and genetic characteristics (click here to see more details). The T. b. gambiense genome will serve as a useful comparative genomics resource to complement the genomes of Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma congolense and Trypanosoma brucei, which has been sequenced in collaboration between the PSU and The Institute for Genomic Research. The T. b. gambiense partial shotgun project was carried out in collaboration with Wendy Gibson (University of Bristol, UK). The genome was published in Plos Negected Tropical Diseases - The genome sequence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, causative agent of chronic human african trypanosomiasis in 2010.

The Database

GeneDB has been funded by the Wellcome Trust to provide full curation support for kinetoplastida genomes to meet the needs of the community. New annotations are constantly being added to keep up with published manuscripts and feedback from the Trypanosomatid research community. In collaboration with GeneDB, the EuPathDB genomic sequence data and annotations are regularly deposited on TriTrypDB where they can be integrated with other datasets and queried using customized queries.

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 analyses of the sequence/open reading frames/genes on a chromosome or genome scale. For further information see our data release policy.