<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>A lack of basic understanding of parasite biology has been a limiting factor in designing
effective means of treating and preventing disease caused by <italic>Cryptosporidium parvum.</italic>
Since the genomic DNA sequence encodes all of the heritable information responsible for
development, disease pathogenesis, virulence, species permissiveness and immune resistance,
a comprehensive knowledge of the <italic>C. parvum</italic> genome will provide the necessary
information required for cost-effective and targeted research into disease prevention and
treatment. With the recent advances in high-throughput automated DNA sequencing
capabilities, large-scale genomic sequencing has become a cost-effective and time-efficient
approach to understanding the biology of an organism. In addition, the continued
development and implementation of new software tools that can scan raw sequences for
signs of genes and then identify clues as to potential functions, has provided the final
realization of the potential rewards of genome sequencing. To further our understanding of
<italic>C. parvum</italic> biology, we have initiated a random shotgun sequencing approach to obtain the
complete sequence of the IOWA isolate of <italic>C. parvum</italic>. Our progress to date has
demonstrated that sequencing of the <italic>C. parvum</italic> genome will be an efficient and costeffective
method for gene discovery of this important eukaryotic pathogen. This will allow
for the identification of key metabolic and immunological features of the organism that will
provide the basis for future development of safe and effective strategies for prevention and
treatment of disease in AIDS patients, as well as immunocompetent hosts. Moreover, by
obtaining the complete sequence of the <italic>C. parvum</italic> genome, effective methods for
subspecific differentiation (strain typing) and epidemiologic surveillance (strain tracking)
of this pathogen can be developed.</p>
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Comp Funct Genomics. 2001 Feb; 2(1):19-21