@article{3ee8e219a2984324b079ea613464fe29,
title = "The genome of Onchocerca volvulus, agent of river blindness",
abstract = "Human onchocerciasis is a serious neglected tropical disease caused by the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus that can lead to blindness and chronic disability. Control of the disease relies largely on mass administration of a single drug, and the development of new drugs and vaccines depends on a better knowledge of parasite biology. Here, we describe the chromosomes of O. volvulus and its Wolbachia endosymbiont. We provide the highest-quality sequence assembly for any parasitic nematode to date, giving a glimpse into the evolution of filarial parasite chromosomes and proteomes. This resource was used to investigate gene families with key functions that could be potentially exploited as targets for future drugs. Using metabolic reconstruction of the nematode and its endosymbiont, we identified enzymes that are likely to be essential for O. volvulus viability. In addition, we have generated a list of proteins that could be targeted by Federal-Drug-Agency-approved but repurposed drugs, providing starting points for anti-onchocerciasis drug development.",
author = "Cotton, {James A.} and Sasisekhar Bennuru and Alexandra Grote and Bhavana Harsha and Alan Tracey and Robin Beech and Doyle, {Stephen R.} and Matthew Dunn and Hotopp, {Julie C.Dunning} and Nancy Holroyd and Taisei Kikuchi and Olivia Lambert and Amruta Mhashilkar and Prudence Mutowo and Nirvana Nursimulu and Ribeiro, {Jose M.C.} and Rogers, {Matthew B.} and Eleanor Stanley and Swapna, {Lakshmipuram S.} and Tsai, {Isheng J.} and Unnasch, {Thomas R.} and Denis Voronin and John Parkinson and Nutman, {Thomas B.} and Elodie Ghedin and Matthew Berriman and Sara Lustigman",
note = "Funding Information: The O. volvulus and O. ochengi genome sequencing was funded by the Wellcome Trust through the core funding of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, WTSI (grant no. 098051). The unpublished RNAseq data used in this study were produced by the parasite genomics group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in collaboration with the laboratory of T.B. Nutman and S. Lustigman and are available from the sequence data archives under BioProject PBJEB2965. The authors thank C. Griffiths, N. Park, L. Shirley and DNA Pipelines at WTSI for generating the libraries, J. Keane, M. Aslett and A. Page of WTSI pathogen informatics for informatics support and for providing the pipeline to annotate the Wolbachia genome, N. Tricoche of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) for the generation of O. volvulus D40 juvenile female and male worms, and J. Liu and A. Contreras from the NYBC for preparing all the DNA and RNA samples used in these studies. J.C.D.H. was supported by NIAID (U19 AI110820) as well as an NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2-OD007372). J.P., N.N. and L.S.S. were supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP# 84556) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2014-06664). Additional computing resources were provided through Compute Canada by the University of Toronto SciNet HPC Consortium. S.L. was supported in part by intramural funding from the NYBC, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and NIH/NIAID (R01 AI42328). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.",
year = "2016",
month = nov,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.216",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "2",
journal = "Nature Microbiology",
issn = "2058-5276",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
}