Bioinformatics as a tool to help characterise Perkinsus Olseni up-regulated genes in response to its host

Abstract

The protozoan pathogen Perkinsus olseni is a parasite known to cause Perkinsosis, a debilitating disease affecting the economically relevant clam Ruditapes (R.) decussatus in Southern Europe and in particular in Ria Formosa, Portugal. Little was known concerning the specificity of the parasite molecular response to its host, R. decussatus and to other bivalves that cohabit in the same or adjacent habitats in Southern Portugal. This system was used to characterise the parasite response to bivalves and was successfully achieved using numerous Bioinformatics tools. The strategy started with the construction of a cDNA forward subtraction library, allowing the identification of parasite up-regulated genes in response to its natural host, then a macroarray was produced, hybridized against RNA from parasite cultured under diverse conditions , i.e. exposed to bivalves hemolymph, namely from permissive host (R. decussatus), resistant host (R. philippinarum) and non permissive bivalve (Donax trunculus). Finally two genes were characterised. From the differential transcriptome to gene and protein characterisation, several Bioinformatics' tools were applied and a new Bioinformatic tool was developed. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.