Toxoplasma gondii: ESTs and gene discovery

Partial cDNA sequences or Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) have proven to be an economical way to gain information about expressed genes in a variety of organisms. Further, ESTs can be generated for strain or developmental stage comparisons. Currently there are over 10 000 ESTs for Toxoplasma gondii derived from RH tachyzoite, ME49 tachyzoite and ME49 bradyzoite cDNA libraries. A set of Web pages and tools has been developed to provide easy access and rapid analysis of these data. Top Hits lists, T. gondii-specific databases/search tools and cluster analyses can be browsed or used to rapidly gain insight into the structure and potential function of genes/proteins held within the database. The previously characterised Eimeria protein Etp100 has been used to demonstrate how it is possible to use these tools to extract and assemble information about the putative T. gondii homologue. (C) 1998 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.