show Abstracthide AbstractSequencing of the <i>Theileria parva</i> genome is a collaboration between <a href="http://www.tigr.org/">The Institute for Genomic Research</a> (TIGR) and the <a href="http://www.cgiar.org/ilri/">International Livestock Research Institute</a> (ILRI), Kenya. The <i>T. parva</i> genome is 8.3 Mb, organized in 4 chromosomes with approximately 4000 protein encoding genes that have sizes ranging from 3.1 to 2.2 Mb. The sequencing strategy used was whole-genome shotgun. The first release of the complete genome sequence and preliminary annotation was in June 30, 2005. This project is currently in gap closure. Please be aware of TIGR's <a href="http://www.tigr.org/tdb/e2k1/tpa1/release.shtml">data release policy</a>. The sequence data is available in GenBank under accession <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=68353706">AAGK00000000</a>. The Phylum Apicomplexa includes organisms from the genus <i>Theileria</i>, <i>Plasmodium</i>, <i>Toxoplasma</i> and <i>Crytosporidium</i>. The latter three are major human pathogens for which small-scale and high-throughtput genome sequencing has been or is about to be completed. The study of the genome structure of these organisms will shed light into the Apicomplexan biology, host-parasite interaction, molecular pathogenesis and is expected to contribute to vaccine and drug development.