Trypanosoma rangeli Transcriptome Project: Generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags.

Trypanosoma rangeli is an important hemoflagellate parasite of several mammalian species in Central and South America, sharing geographical areas, vectors and reservoirs with T. cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. Thus, the occurrence of single and/or mixed infections, including in humans, must be expected and are of great importance for specific diagnosis and epidemiology. In comparison to several Trypanosomatidae species, the T. rangeli biology and genome are little known, reinforcing the needs of a gene discovery initiative. The T. rangeli transcriptome initiative aims to promote gene discovery through the generation of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and Orestes (ORF ESTs) from both epimastigote and trypomastigote forms of the parasite, allowing further studies of the parasite biology, taxonomy and phylogeny.