OBJECTIVE: To rapidly and economically obtain knowledge about adult stage Schistosoma japonicum (Chinese strain) expressed genes using expressed sequence tag (EST). METHODS: A directional cDNA library constructed from Schistosoma japonicum (Chinese strain) adult stage RNA was used to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs). These were compared against an EMBL-parasites database and GENBANK database by BLASTn and BLASTx. RESULTS: A total of 314 phage clones were randomly selected for generating expressed sequence tags (ESTs). From these clones, 132 EST-quality sequence were obtained. Among these EST-quality sequences, 113 ESTs were successfully submitted to the dbEST at GenBanK. A total of 7.6% of these EST-quality sequences were previously identified sequence of Schistosoma japonicum, while 4.5% were putatively identified sequences of Schistosoma japonicum. A total of 23.5% of these EST-quality sequences were putatively identified sequence of Schistosoma mansoni or other organisms. 57.6% had no matches in the database and were classified as unknown sequences. Most ESTs with the putative protein identified belonged to housekeeping proteins. Information about several interesting genes was found. CONCLUSION: Partial cDNA sequencing to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs) has the potential to rapidly and economically increase our knowledge about adult stage Schistosoma japonicum (Chinese strain) expressed genes.
