Saturday 26 April 2014

Decoded fly genome offers clues about sleeping sickness


Tsetse gene sequence adds to researchers' knowledge of the fly's biology and behaviour.
24 April 2014

An estimated 70 million people remain at risk for sleeping sickness, which is carried by the tsetse fly.

Public-health workers are one step closer to stamping out a debilitating and potentially fatal disease known as sleeping sickness following the sequence of its carrier, the tsetse fly. The 366-million-base sequence of Glossina morsitans morsitans offers clues to the insect's diet, vision and reproductive strategies, researchers say.

“This really accelerates our ability to do basic research on this fly”, says lead author Geoffrey Attardo of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut. The work was published today in Science1.

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