A Deep Exploration of the Transcriptome and “Excretory/Secretory ” Proteome of Adult

Parasitic liver flukes of the family Fasciolidae are respon-sible for major socioeconomic losses worldwide. However, at present, knowledge of the fundamental molecular biol-ogy of these organisms is scant. Here, we characterize, for the first time, the transcriptome and secreted proteome of the adult stage of the “giant liver fluke, ” Fascioloides magna, using Illumina sequencing technology and one-di-mensional SDS-PAGE andOFFGEL protein electrophoresis, respectively. A total of 54,000,000 reads were generated and assembled into 39,000 contiguous sequences (con-tigs);20,000 peptides were predicted and classified based on homology searches, protein motifs, gene ontology, and biological pathway mapping. From the predicted proteome, 48.1 % of proteins could be assigned to 384 biological path-way terms, including “spliceosome, ” “RNA transport, ” and “endocytosis. ” Putative proteins involved in amino acid degradation were most abundant. Of the 835 secreted pro-teins predicted from the transcriptome of F.magna, 80were identified in the excretory/secretory products from this par-asite. Highly represented were antioxidant proteins, fol-lowed by peptidases (particularly cathepsins) and proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism. The integration of transcriptomic and proteomic datasets generated herein sets the scene for future studies aimed at exploring the potential role(s) that molecules might play at the host– parasite interface and for establishing novel strategies for the treatment or control of parasitic fluke infec