Discussion

High-throughput molecular and bioinformatics technologies have become instrumental for systems biological explorations of gastrointestinal (GI) helminth parasites of major socio-economic importance and their interactions with the vertebrate hosts. The exploration of the genomes, transcriptomes and proteomes of helminth parasites, and the characterization of global host responses to infection, is assisting the elucidation of a number of key molecular processes linked to parasite development and host invasion, as well as the pathobiology of disease and the development of anthelmintic resistance. High-throughput sequencing technologies are also increasingly being applied to studies aimed to investigate the complex relationships between GI helminths and the resident commensal microbial flora. These studies are mainly driven by the need to better understand the relative contribution of parasite-associated changes in the composition of microbial populations to host malnutrition and immune-modulation. This presentation will provide an overview of recent applications of high-throughput &hypen;‘omic technologies to large scale studies of the genomes, transcriptomes and/or proteomes of socioeconomically important GI helminths as well as of parasite-microbiota interactions and emphasize the prospects of fundamental explorations of these pathogens using these technologies for the development of new intervention strategies.