Biology of the Trypanosoma cruzi Genome

Abstract

The genome of Trypanosoma cruzi was first made available in 2005, and the intrinsic genome complexity of this parasite has hindered high-quality genome assembly and annotation. Recent technological developments in long read sequencing allowed to circumvent this problem, showing very interesting features in the genome architecture of T. cruzi , allowing to accurately estimate gene copy numbers, abundance and distribution of repetitive sequences (including satellites and retroele-ments), and the complexity of multigene families implied in host-parasite interac-tions. The genome of T. cruzi is composed of a “core compartment” and a “disruptive compartment” which exhibit opposite GC content and gene composition, with high differences on their regulatory regions. The novel tandem and dispersed repetitive sequences identified, in addition to recombination events, allows to conclude that genome plasticity is a key survival strategy during its complex life cycle.