The genome of tapeworm Taenia multiceps sheds light on understanding parasitic mechanism and control of coenurosis disease

Abstract

Coenurosis, caused by the larval coenurus of the tapeworm Taenia multiceps, is a fatal central nervous system disease in both sheep and humans. Though treatment and prevention options are available, the control of coenurosis still faces presents great challenges. Here, we present a high-quality genome sequence of T. multiceps in which 240 Mb (96%) of the genome has been successfully assembled using Pacbio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) and Hi-C data with a N50 length of 44.8 Mb. In total, 49.5 Mb (20.6%) repeat sequences and 13, 013 gene models were identified. We found that Taenia spp. have an expansion of transposable elements and recent small-scale gene duplications following the divergence of Taenia from Echinococcus, but not in Echinococcus genomes, and the genes underlying environmental adaptability and dosage effect tend to be over-retained in the T. multiceps genome. Moreover, we identified several genes encoding proteins involved in proglottid formation and interactions with the host central nervous system, which may contribute to the adaption of T. multiceps to its parasitic life style. Our study not only provides insights into the biology and evolution of T. multiceps, but also identifies a set of species-specific gene targets for developing novel treatment and control tools for coenurosis.

Transcriptome of Sphaerospora molnari (Cnidaria, Myxosporea) blood stages provides proteolytic arsenal as potential therapeutic targets against sphaerosporosis in common carp

“…The transcriptomes of parasitic nematode Teladorsagia circumcincta were found to have only 23-38% of the conserved gene set yet appeared to have good matches to the representative genome [42]. Furthermore, cestode parasites have a range of conserved eukaryotic genes from Taenia multiceps (81.8%) to Echinococcus multilocularis (91.6%) [43]. Additionally, despite removing protein sequences that were more than 90% similar to each other in the S. molnari dataset, there were a high number of duplicated single copy BUSCO genes ( Table 2).…”

Extensive genomic and transcriptomic variation defines the chromosome-scale assembly ofHaemonchus contortus, a model gastrointestinal worm

“…Parasitic helminths are a diverse group of organisms for which significant efforts have been made to develop genomic resources [10] . For some species, including Onchocerca volvulus [11] , Strongyloides ratti [12] , Taenia multiceps [13] , and Echinococcus multilocularis [14] , high-quality near-complete assemblies have been achieved using multiple complementary sequencing and mapping technologies, and usually with extensive manual improvement work. Similar quality assemblies for a few other species (S chistosoma mansoni, Brugia malayi, Hymenolepis microstoma, and Trichuris muris ) are available from WormBase ParaSite [15] , but await formal description in the peer-reviewed literature.…”

Genomic and transcriptomic variation defines the chromosome-scale assembly of Haemonchus contortus, a model gastrointestinal worm

“…Parasitic helminths are a diverse group of organisms for which significant efforts have been made to develop genomic resources 10 . For some species [11][12][13][14][15][16] , high-quality near-complete assemblies have been achieved using multiple complementary sequencing and mapping technologies, and usually with extensive manual improvement. Similar quality assemblies for a few other species are available from WormBase ParaSite 17 , but await formal description in the peer-reviewed literature.…”