GENERATION, IDENTIFICATION, AND EVALUATION OF EXPRESSED SEQUENCE TAGSFROM DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF THE ASIAN BLOOD FLUKE SCHISTOSOMA-JAPONICUM

Here me report 658 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated from the 5 '-termini of clones randomly selected from directional cDNA libraries constructed from mRNAs from three developmental stages of Schistosoma japonicum. Putative identifications were assigned to 46.2% of the ESTs ; 6.4% were previously known from S. japonicum, 5.6% were previously k nown from S. mansoni, 34.2% were known from other organisms, and the r emaining 53.8% may represent S. japonicum-specific genes. These 658 ES Ts appeared to be derived from 457 unique genes, which together repres ent 2 to 3% of the 15,000 to 20,000 genes predicted to occur in the sc histosome genome. (C) 1998 Academic Press.