Comparative genomics of drug resistance in Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense genomes

Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense is one of the causative agents of human sleeping sickness, a fatal disease that is transmitted by the tsetse fly and restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa. Here we investigate two independent lines of T. b. rhodesiense, STIB 900-M and STIB 900-P, that have been selected independently with the drugs melarsoprol and pentamidine, respectively, over the course of two years until they exhibited stable melarsoprol-pentamidine cross-resistance (MPXR) to an unprecedented degree. The genomes of the resistant lines were sequenced on the Roche 454 FLX Titanium platform thanks to a generous award from the Roche 10Gb Program.