Lymphatic filariasis is caused by mosquito-borne nematode parasites of the genera Brugia and Wuchereria. The world-wide prevalence of the disease is an estimated 120 million individuals. Steroid/nuclear hormone receptor gene family encode structurally related proteins that regulate transcription of target genes and are involved in many developmental processes including moulting in insects and dauer larvae formation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Two steroid/nuclear hormone receptor genes,
bhr-1 and
bhr-2, have been isolated by PCR from Brugia pahangi, in order to investigate their role in development, while a further two genes have been identified by the Brugia EST sequencing project. Bhr-1 is closely related to CNR8 of C. elegans and
bhr-2 to DHR78 of Drosphila. A cDNA has been isolated that correspondings to
bhr-2 and semi-quantitative RT-PCR has demonstrated that it is expressed in all life-cycle stages. The expression pattern of the others is being investigated to determine whether they are expressed to co-incides with specific developmental events.