NOTE: Antonospora locustae was previously called Nosema locustae

Principal Investigators Mitchell L. Sogin,Hilary G. Morrison and Charles Vossbrinck (Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven CT)

The Project

The genome project and its companion course, Advances in Genomics and Bioinformatics, are funded by the National Science Foundation. The sequencing is carried out at the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Dr. Andrew G. McArthur, Michael Cipriano, and Rich Fox provide bioinformatics and computational support.

Background

Members of the phylum Microsporidia are highly successful, obligate intracellular eukaryotic parasites with remarkably small genomes of 2.3-20 megabases (MB). They infect nearly all the invertebrate phyla, most commonly arthropods, and all five classes of vertebrates. In agricultural settings, some microsporidial species serve as biological control agents of pests, including Antonospora locustae (Nolo Bait) while others are significant pathogens of beneficial insects. They are most prevalent in Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera. Microsporidial species with predictable host ranges are attractive candidates for biological control. Knowing the molecular determinants of invasion, pathogenesis, and transmission will identify targets for the control of insect pests or for the prevention and treatment of microsporidal infections in beneficial insects.

The significance of these enigmatic protists for molecular evolution stems from initial phylogenetic analyses based upon comparisons of rRNA and elongation factor genes that place Microsporidia basal to most other eukaryotes. This placement is contradicted by analyses of other genes, which suggest a close affinity between Microsporidia and Fungi. Equally intriguing is the potential influence of intracellular lifestyles on genome evolution. Microorganisms are usually members of complex communities that require interactions between large numbers of genomes. In contrast, associations between a host and an intracellular parasite require genome communication between only two organisms. The cell interior is a specialized ecological niche that exerts selective pressure on the parasite genome. This may lead to rapid diversification and acute specialization. Potential exists for co-evolution by pathway complementation and gene transfer in eukaryote-eukaryote interactions, such as between intracellular protists and animal hosts.

Strategy

Plasmid libraries containing inserts from 1-3 kbp in size were constructed in pUC18 and other vectors. Sequence data are obtained from each end of the insert using M13F and M13R primers. At present, we use an Applied Biosystems 3730XL capillary sequencer which generates reads of over 850 high quality bases (PHRED score >20). Sequences are assembled using the ARACHNE assembler and ORFs are called on stable contigs over 3000bp using Glimmer2.0 and CRITICA.

Summary Statistics

Total Number of Contigs	3,116
Total Number of Supercontigs	2,681
Average Shotgun Coverage	7.90
Estimated Closure (of 5.3 Mbp)	114.62%
Predicted Open Reading Frames	2,606

Statistics updated every 24 hours.
Detailed statistics: Assembly, ORFs

Data Use Policy: Read Before Proceeding

The following policy is in accordance with the UPDATED NHGRI POLICY FOR RELEASE AND DATABASE DEPOSITION OF SEQUENCE DATA.

WARNING: Our goal is to make the genome sequence of Antonospora locustae rapidly and broadly available. We will post assembly contig consensus sequences on our WEB site. We will continue to post our contigs-in-progress, but our sequence data on this web site or in future submissions to NCBI's unfinished genomes are NOT published. We ask only that users of our unpublished sequence data respect our intention to publish the complete, accurate, and annotated sequence of the Antonospora locustae genome, along with our large-scale interpretation of that genome sequence, when it nears or reaches closure. Examples of large-scale interpretations include identification of regions of evolutionary conservation across the genome and/or individual chromosomes, multiple gene phylogenies, identification of extensive sets of genomic features such as genes, gene-families, biochemical and metabolic pathways, repeat structures, G+C content, etc. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, please email Dr. Mitchell L. Sogin (sogin@mbl.edu) or Dr. Hilary G. Morrison (morrison@mbl.edu).
With this single exception, the pre-publication data are available for all other scientific uses (e.g., array design, design of PCR amplification). For example, the data may be used to "jump-start" biological experimentation including PCR amplification and publication of confirmed gene sequences. Users of this information are encouraged to share their results with the Antonospora locustae sequencing project. Except for large-scale analyses described above, it is not our intent to restrict publication of a handful of genes extracted from this database.
1. Publications of results should refer to the specific version or date of the data release and should include the following citation: "Antonospora locustae Genome Project, Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, funded by NSF award number 0135272".
2. Users are free to download the Antonospora locustae genome sequences for their own use and that of others within their research environment. This data release policy must be displayed to all users of the downloaded data.
3. We explicitly request that users not serve our Antonospora locustae genome sequence data to external users. For an exception to our request, you must receive explicit written permission from Dr. Mitchell L. Sogin.

Funding provided by:

The National Science Foundation
G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation
W.M. Keck Foundation

Scientific enquiries should be sent to morrison@mbl.edu

This database is hosted by the JBPC GMOD Server. Bug reports and technical problems should be reported to biocomp@lists.mbl.edu.