In Silico Prediction of Evolutionarily Conserved GC-Rich Elements Associated with Antigenic Proteins of Plasmodium falciparum.

ABSTRACT: The Plasmodium falciparum genome being AT-rich, the presence of GC-rich regions suggests functional significance. Evolution imposes selection pressure to retain functionally important coding and regulatory elements. Hence searching for evolutionarily conserved GC-rich, intergenic regions in an AT-rich genome will help in discovering new coding regions and regulatory elements. We have used elevated GC content in intergenic regions coupled with sequence conservation against P. reichenowi, which is evolutionarily closely related to P. falciparum to identify potential sequences of functional importance. Interestingly, ~30% of the GC-rich, conserved sequences were associated with antigenic proteins encoded by var and rifin genes. The majority of sequences identified in the 5' UTR of var genes a

SUBMITTER: Panneerselvam P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3283219 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature