This intracellular parasite causes East Coast Fever in cattle

Sequencing of the Theileria parva genome is a collaboration between The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya. The T. parva genome is 8.3 Mb, organized in 4 chromosomes with approximately 4000 protein encoding genes that have sizes ranging from 3.1 to 2.2 Mb. The sequencing strategy used was whole-genome shotgun. The first release of the complete genome sequence and preliminary annotation was in June 30, 2005. This project is currently in gap closure. Please be aware of TIGR's data release policy. The sequence data is available in GenBank under accession AAGK00000000. The Phylum Apicomplexa includes organisms from the genus Theileria, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma and Crytosporidium. The latter three are major human pathogens for which small-scale and high-throughtput genome sequencing has been or is about to be completed. The study of the genome structure of these organisms will shed light into the Apicomplexan biology, host-parasite interaction, molecular pathogenesis and is expected to contribute to vaccine and drug development.