Trypanosoma cruzi transcriptome. Trypanosoma cruzi strain:Y

The goal of this study is to obtain comprehensive gene expression profiling data for the main extracellular developmental stages of the human pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi using an RNA-seq approach. An array of computational tools was applied to map reads to the T. cruzi 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 T. cruzi genes that were likely missed during the original annotation, thereby greatly enhancing current gene model structures and annotations. The study provides a solid framework for future functional and genomic studies of Chagas disease as well as intracellular pathogenesis in general.