-
 J Vet Sci. 2009 Jun;10(3):203-210
DOI: 10.4142/jvs.2009.10.3.203
  
 

Charting the proteome of Cryptosporidium parvum sporozoites using sequence similarity-based BLAST searching

A.M.A.M.Z. Siddiki*, Jonathan M. Wastling

 

Department of Preclinical Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZJ, UK
* zsiddiki@gmail.com

 

Cryptosporidium (C.) spp. are important zoonotic parasites causing widespread diarrhoeal disease in man and animals. The recent release of the complete genome sequences for C. parvum and C. hominis has facilitated the comprehensive global proteome analysis of these opportunistic pathogens. The well-known approach for mass spectrometry (MS) based data analysis using the BLAST tool (MS BLAST) is a database search protocol for identifying unknown proteins by sequence similarity to homologous proteins using peptide sequences produced by mass spectrometry. We have used several complementary approaches to explore the global sporozoite proteome of C. parvum with available proteomic tools. To optimize the output of the MS data, a sequence similarity-based MS BLAST strategy was employed for bioinformatic analysis. Most significantly, almost all the constituents of glycolysis and several mitochondrionrelated proteins were identified. In addition, many hypothetical Cryptosporidium proteins were validated by the identification of their constituent peptides. The MS BLAST approach was found to be useful during the study and could provide valuable information towards a complete understanding of the unique biology of Cryptosporidium.