TY - JOUR T1 - The sequence and analysis of Trypanosoma brucei chromosome II. JF - Nucleic Acids Res Y1 - 2003 A1 - el-Sayed, Najib M A A1 - Ghedin, Elodie A1 - Song, Jinming A1 - MacLeod, Annette A1 - Bringaud, Frederic A1 - Larkin, Christopher A1 - Wanless, David A1 - Peterson, Jeremy A1 - Hou, Lihua A1 - Taylor, Sonya A1 - Tweedie, Alison A1 - Biteau, Nicolas A1 - Khalak, Hanif G A1 - Lin, Xiaoying A1 - Mason, Tanya A1 - Hannick, Linda A1 - Caler, Elisabet A1 - Blandin, Gaƫlle A1 - Bartholomeu, Daniella A1 - Simpson, Anjana J A1 - Kaul, Samir A1 - Zhao, Hong A1 - Pai, Grace A1 - Van Aken, Susan A1 - Utterback, Teresa A1 - Haas, Brian A1 - Koo, Hean L A1 - Umayam, Lowell A1 - Suh, Bernard A1 - Gerrard, Caroline A1 - Leech, Vanessa A1 - Qi, Rong A1 - Zhou, Shiguo A1 - Schwartz, David A1 - Feldblyum, Tamara A1 - Salzberg, Steven A1 - Tait, Andrew A1 - Turner, C Michael R A1 - Ullu, Elisabetta A1 - White, Owen A1 - Melville, Sara A1 - Adams, Mark D A1 - Fraser, Claire M A1 - Donelson, John E KW - Animals KW - Antigens, Protozoan KW - Chromosome mapping KW - Chromosomes KW - DNA, Protozoan KW - Gene Duplication KW - Genes, Protozoan KW - Molecular Sequence Data KW - Pseudogenes KW - Recombination, Genetic KW - Sequence Analysis, DNA KW - Trypanosoma brucei brucei AB -

We report here the sequence of chromosome II from Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness. The 1.2-Mb pairs encode about 470 predicted genes organised in 17 directional clusters on either strand, the largest cluster of which has 92 genes lined up over a 284-kb region. An analysis of the GC skew reveals strand compositional asymmetries that coincide with the distribution of protein-coding genes, suggesting these asymmetries may be the result of transcription-coupled repair on coding versus non-coding strand. A 5-cM genetic map of the chromosome reveals recombinational 'hot' and 'cold' regions, the latter of which is predicted to include the putative centromere. One end of the chromosome consists of a 250-kb region almost exclusively composed of RHS (pseudo)genes that belong to a newly characterised multigene family containing a hot spot of insertion for retroelements. Interspersed with the RHS genes are a few copies of truncated RNA polymerase pseudogenes as well as expression site associated (pseudo)genes (ESAGs) 3 and 4, and 76 bp repeats. These features are reminiscent of a vestigial variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene expression site. The other end of the chromosome contains a 30-kb array of VSG genes, the majority of which are pseudogenes, suggesting that this region may be a site for modular de novo construction of VSG gene diversity during transposition/gene conversion events.

VL - 31 CP - 16 ER -