From NematodeGenomes

From WormBook http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_genomesHbacteriophora/genomesHbacteriophora.html#sec8 "In June 2005, NHGRI announced that it was targeting H. bacteriophora for a high quality (i.e., 6X coverage) draft genome sequence. This was partially due to the efforts and white paper produced by the H. bacteriophora genome consortium initiated at the EPN and associated bacteria meetings in Wooster, Ohio and Eilat, Israel in 2003 (Ciche et al., 2006). Heterorhabditis was chosen over other EPNs because of its relatedness to C. elegans, and H. bacteriophora strain TTO1 was chosen because the genome sequence of the mutually associated P. luminescens subsp. laumondii bacteria was completed (Duchaud et al., 2003). This strain was inbred for 13 generations by self-fertilizing individual IJs and distributed to the EPN community (Ciche and Sternberg unpublished). The genome size was determined to be 111.4 +/- 1.1 Mb by Spencer Johnson using a flow cytometry technique (Bennett et al., 2003; The H. bacteriophora genome consortium, unpublished). Genomic DNA from the inbred line M31e purified from axenic IJs has been sent to Washington University Genome Sciences Center and is currently undergoing heterozygosity testing (see progress here: http://genome.wustl.edu/genome.cgi?GENOME=Heterorhabditis%20 bacteriophora). Approximately 4600 sequence traces generated for heterozygosity testing have been deposited in the NCBI Trace Archive (linked to in the website listed above). Construction of a physical map and ESTs are also planned. Recently, an EST dataset (1246 ESTs) from H. bacteriophora strain GPS11 was analyzed (Sandhu et al., 2006). From 1072 useful ESTs analyzed, 417 had significant similarities to C. elegans and approximately 67% of the ESTs had no significant match in Genbank suggesting the possibility that a significant amount of novel genes expressed by IJ H. bacteriophora. It is evident from this data and initial genome data on the NCBI trace archive, that H. bacteriophora shares many signaling pathways with C. elegans. However, the large amount of genome data that will be available in the near future should greatly clarify comparisons to C. elegans and other nematodes. The high quality draft sequence, ESTs and a physical map will rapidly mature our knowledge of gene content, organization and expression and enable many studies, such as functional genomics to elucidate gene function in H. bacteriophora, for example, as related to parasitic or symbiotic biology."