Use of a 44k oligoarray to explore the transcriptome of Schistosoma mansoni adult worms

Recent advances in the study of Schistosoma mansoni genome and transcriptome have led to a better description of the S. mansoni gene complement. In this work, we report the design and use of a new S. mansoni 60-mer oligonucleotide microarray platform with approximately 44,000 probes, based on all publicly available cDNA sequence data for S. mansoni and Schistosoma japonicum. The large number of probes combined with the extensive sequence annotation available allowed a comprehensive approach, where most of the S. mansoni transcriptome is represented. Hybridization with adult worm RNA pointed to a set of genes transcriptionally active in this stage of the parasite's life cycle. Interestingly, a large proportion (43%) of genes for which transcription was detected in adults is comprised of "no match" genes, i.e. S. mansoni genes with unknown function and no identifiable orthologs in GenBank. Moreover, detection of bi-directional transcription for 7% of the active "no match" genes in adults leads us to hypothesize a widespread production of antisense RNA in S. mansoni, with possible regulatory roles.