Gene Expression: Implications for Blood Processing

Background The schistosome esophagus is divided into anterior and posterior compartments, each sur-rounded by a dense cluster of gland cell bodies, the source of distinct secretory vesicles dis-charged into the lumen to initiate the processing of ingested blood. Erythrocytes are lysed in the lumen, leucocytes are tethered and killed and platelets are eliminated. We know little about the proteins secreted from the two glands that mediate these biological processes. Methodology/Principal Findings We have used subtractive RNA-Seq to characterise the complement of genes that are dif-ferentially expressed in a head preparation, compared to matched tissues from worm tails. The expression site of representative highlighted genes was then validated using whole munt in situ hybridisation (WISH). Mapping of transcript reads to the S.mansoni genome assembly using Cufflinks identified ~90 genes that were differentially expressed>fourfold in the head preparation; ~50 novel transcripts were also identified by de novo assembly using Trinity. The largest subset (27) of secreted proteins was encoded by microexon gene