@article {49539,
	title = {Transcriptomic profiling of gene expression and RNA processing during Leishmania major differentiation.},
	volume = {43},
	year = {2015},
	month = {2015 Aug 18},
	pages = {6799-813},
	abstract = {<p>Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are the etiological agents of leishmaniasis, a group of diseases with a worldwide incidence of 0.9-1.6 million cases per year. We used RNA-seq to conduct a high-resolution transcriptomic analysis of the global changes in gene expression and RNA processing events that occur as L. major transforms from non-infective procyclic promastigotes to infective metacyclic promastigotes. Careful statistical analysis across multiple biological replicates and the removal of batch effects provided a high quality framework for comprehensively analyzing differential gene expression and transcriptome remodeling in this pathogen as it acquires its infectivity. We also identified precise 5{\textquoteright} and 3{\textquoteright} UTR boundaries for a majority of Leishmania genes and detected widespread alternative trans-splicing and polyadenylation. An investigation of possible correlations between stage-specific preferential trans-splicing or polyadenylation sites and differentially expressed genes revealed a lack of systematic association, establishing that differences in expression levels cannot be attributed to stage-regulated alternative RNA processing. Our findings build on and improve existing expression datasets and provide a substantially more detailed view of L. major biology that will inform the field and potentially provide a stronger basis for drug discovery and vaccine development efforts.</p>},
	issn = {1362-4962},
	doi = {10.1093/nar/gkv656},
	author = {Dillon, Laura A L and Okrah, Kwame and Hughitt, V Keith and Suresh, Rahul and Li, Yuan and Fernandes, Maria Cecilia and Belew, A Trey and Corrada Bravo, Hector and Mosser, David M and El-Sayed, Najib M}
}
