Leishmania major transcriptome. Leishmania major strain:Friedlin V1 (MHOM/IL/1980/Friedlin)

The goal of this study is to obtain comprehensive gene expression profiling data for the promastigote developmental stages of the human pathogen Leishmania major using an RNA-seq approach. An array of computational tools was applied to map reads to the L. major genome, reconstruct full-length transcripts and determine mRNA abundance, enabling us to identify co-expression patterns that correlate with the biology of the parasite. We have defined trans-splicing and polyadenylation sites and identified novel L. major genes that were likely missed during the original annotation, thereby greatly enhancing current gene model annotations. The study provides a solid framework for future functional and genomic studies of Leishmania.