Researchers have sequenced the genome of the tsetse fly for the first time in a project that took over a decade.
The tsetse fly is the sole carrier of African sleeping sickness; the researchers hope this study will provide insight into thow to reduce cases of the illness, a Yale University news release reported.
The sequencing provided "genetic blueprints" of the proteins that make up the tsetse fly. The researchers referred to it as a "parts list" that reveals all of the pieces that make up the organism.
"This is a major milestone for the tsetse research community," Geoffrey M. Attardo, a research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and the paper's lead author said in the news release. "Our hope is that this resource will facilitate functional research and be an ongoing contribution to the vector biology community."
Current drugs that fight African sleeping sickness are expensive and come with troubling side effects. African sleeping sickness is 100 percent fatal if left untreated, but it is difficult to distribute the drug in parts of rural Africa where the illness is prevalent. This research could help researchers target the tsetse fly instead of the disease itself.
The research team overcame "technical, biological and economic" hurdles to make their findings.
They limited their research to a single genetic line of the tsetse fly; this allowed them to take small clips of data ("thousands of letter codes") and arrange them into larger "scaffolds" that contained millions of letters. The tsetse fly genome contains about 366 million letters of code, which is only about 10 percent of the human genome.
This technique proved to be difficult because only so much genetic information is obtainable from each individual fly. Unlike most fly species, the tsetse gives birth to very few offspring.
"We are very happy to finally reach the finish line," School of Public Health professor Serap Aksoy said in the news release. "Our hope is that tsetse research will now enjoy broader participation from the vector community and lead to improved and novel methods to eliminate disease."
