Members of the genus Naegleria are free-living amoebae, that are distributed worldwide in soil and aquatic habitats (expect in seawater).These protists are important predators of cyano- and eubacteria, hereby regulating bacterial populations in lakes and rivers. Some Naegleria (N.fowleri and N.lovaniensis) are thermophilic and proliferate mainly during the summer months when the environmental temperature in likely to be high (up to 45°C). Although over 40 species of Naegleria have been identified, N. fowleri is the only one that has been isolated in cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in man. PAM is an acute and fatal fulminating hemorrhagic infection of the brain, and it affects mainly healthy children or young adults who have recently been exposed to contaminated water through the nose (by swimming and/or during nasal cleansing). In 2005, it was also detected in bovines. Although the number of reported cases of N. fowleri infection is small (approx.300 cases in 50 years), it has a 99% fatality rate. As the symptoms of PAM disease are very similar to the ones presented during bacterial meningitis, PAM is thought to be underestimated. At the moment, no effective diagnosis or treatment is available. The number of cases is likely to increase due to global warming, global overpopulation, and increased industrial activities.
In order to develop improved diagnostic tools and/or provide an early and effective treatment against N. fowleri infection, it is important to understand the biology and the pathogenesis of this amoeba. The identification of virulence factors or mechanisms is a key issue. For this, we aim to perform the WGS of closely related Naegleria strains, with different levels of virulence: N. fowleri (pathogenic to man) and N. australiensis (pathogenic to animals but not to man). The two strains would be sequenced using an Illumina apparatus. After full assembly and annotation, we will compare the two genomes.
