The study of the
Schistosoma mansoni
genome, one of the etiologic agents of human schistosomiasis, is essential
for a better understanding of the biology and development of this parasite.
In order to get an overview of all
S. mansoni
catalogued gene sequences, we performed a clustering analysis of the parasite
mRNA sequences available in public databases. This was made using softwares
PHRAP and CAP3. The consensus sequences, generated after the alignment of
cluster constituent sequences, allowed the identification by database homology
searches of the most expressed genes in the worm. We analyzed these genes
and looked for a correlation between their high expression and parasite
metabolism and biology. We observed that the majority of these genes is
related to the maintenance of basic cell functions, encoding genes whose
products are related to the cytoskeleton, intracellular transport and energy
metabolism. Evidences are presented here that genes for aerobic energy metabolism
are expressed in all the developmental stages analyzed. Some of the most
expressed genes could not be identified by homology searches and may have
some specific functions in the parasite.
