Transcriptome analysis of the Trypanosoma cruzi life-cycle

To generate a high quality, annotated gene expression database of T. cruzi trypomastigotes(TRP), amastigotes (AMA), epimastigotes (EPI), and metacyclic trypomastigotes (MET). The global assessment of transcript abundances in each life-cycle stage of T. cruzi will identify stage-regulated genes and provide an essential element of an integrated database of T. cruzi genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic data. RNAs from 3 biological replicates from a single time point in each stage will be subjected to DNA microarrays containing probes for the complete, annotated T. cruzi genome, as it is currently known. The arrays for this project will be provided by the Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center (PFGRC) at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and will contain long oligonucleotides complementary to every annotated gene in the newly sequenced T. cruzi genome. The resulting data and analysis results will be deposited in TcruziDB (http://TcruziDB.org). Keywords: Gene expression comparisons between the four life-cycle stages of T. cruzi Six hybridizations were performed for each life-cycle stage. The hybridizations consisted of three dye-swap experiments from three independent samples (biological replicates). In each case, the experimental sample was from a single life-cycle stage and the control sample was an equal mixture of all four life-cycle stages. A total of 24 hybridizations were preformed.