Comparative genomics of over 70 helminth genomes
James Cotton1, Nancy Holroyd1, Diogo Ribeiro1, Isheng Jason Tsai1,5, Eleanor Stanley1, Avril Coghlan1,
Bhavana Harsha1, Daria Gordon1, Taisei Kikuchi3, John Martin2, Philip Ozersky2, Kym Pepin2, Xu
Zhang2, Bruce Rosa2, Rahul Tyagi2, Xin Gao2, Bruce Bolt4, Kevin Howe4, Makedonka Mitreva2, Matthew
Berriman1
1Wellcome
Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, 2The Genome Institute at Washington
University, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA, 3Faculty of Medicine,
University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan, 4European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European
Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, 5Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica,
Taipei, Taiwan
Genomic data is available for a growing number of helminth species, including exemplars of most major
clades of parasitic worms, but these data do not capture much of the diversity of helminth parasites. To
address this, the international helminth genome initiative is attempting to expand our knowledge of
helminth genomes. With a large group of collaborators, we have generated whole-genome shotgun
sequence data and draft genome assemblies for over 50 parasitic nematode and platyhelminth species
for which genomic data was previously unavailable, including parasites of medical and veterinary
importance and some comparative species that occupy important phylogenetic positions, for example
as outgroups to important groups of parasites. These data include the first genomic data for a number
of important parasites such as equine strongyles, lungworms and Guinea worm. The genomes we
include are demonstrably largely complete, but the fragmentary nature of the assemblies makes some
analyses challenging. Despite this, we can see for the first time the broad outlines of genome evolution
for parasitic helminths, identify gene families that are evolving in surprising ways and thus may have
important functions, and assess how well C. elegans, and the better-known parasite species in each
group, represent the diversity of helminths.