Project description:Strongyloides ratti is a common gastro-intestinal parasite of the rat. The adult parasites are female only, about 2mm long and live in the mucosa of the small intestine. These parasites produce eggs that pass out of the host in its faeces. In the environment infective larval stages develop either directly or after a facultative sexual free-living adult generation. Infective larvae infect hosts by skin penetration.S. ratti is the laboratory analogue of the parasite of humans, S. stercoralis. S. stercoralis is a wide-spread parasite of humans, occurring principally in the tropics and sub-tropics: some 100-200 million people are infected worldwide. Infection of immunosuppressed individuals can result in disseminated strongyloidiasis, in which worms occur throughout the body. This can be fatal unless anti-Strongyloides therapy is given. Other species of Strongyloides parasitise a wide range of vertebrates. As part of the Strongyloides ratti genome project we are profiling the transcriptome of the parasite across its life cycle using RNA-Seq.. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/