De novo 454 transcriptome sequencing of Mecistocirrus digitatus, a neglected parasitic GI nematode of cattle and buffalo.

In areas of the developing world, cattle and buffalo are an important source of meat, milk and draught power for small-holder farmers. The parasitic GI nematode, Mecistocirrus digitatus, is a blood feeding nematode which infects cattle and buffalo in Asia and Central America causing morbidity and mortality of its host which, in turn, can affect the livelihood of the small-holder farmer. Little sequence data is currently available for M. digitatus. This study used de-novo transcriptome sequencing of M. digitatus with the aim of identifying of novel genes that encode vaccine candidate antigens such as H11. Adult M. digitatus were obtained from the abomasum of cattle from an abattoir in Tamil Nadu, India, cDNA prepared using the Evrogen SMART synthesis service, then sequenced on the Roche 454 FLX titanium platform.