Malcolm J. Gardner,
Hervé Tettelin,
Daniel J. Carucci,
Leda M. Cummings,
L. Aravind,
Eugene V. Koonin,
Shamira Shallom,
Tanya Mason,
Kelly Yu,
Claire Fujii,
James Pederson,
Kun Shen,
Junping Jing,
Christopher Aston,
Zhongwu Lai,
David C. Schwartz,
Mihaela Pertea,
Steven Salzberg,
Lixin Zhou,
*
Granger G. Sutton,
Rebecca Clayton,
Owen White,
Hamilton O. Smith,
Claire M. Fraser,
Mark D. Adams,
J. Craig Venter,
Stephen L. Hoffman
Chromosome 2 of Plasmodium falciparum was sequenced;
this sequence contains 947,103 base pairs and encodes 210 predicted
genes. In comparison with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae
genome, chromosome 2 has a lower gene density, introns are more
frequent, and proteins are markedly enriched in nonglobular domains. A
family of surface proteins, rifins, that may play a role in antigenic
variation was identified. The complete sequencing of chromosome 2 has
shown that sequencing of the A+T-rich P. falciparum genome
is technically feasible.
M. J. Gardner, H. Tettelin, L. M. Cummings, S. Shallom,
T. Mason, K. Yu, C. Fujii, J. Pederson, K. Shen, L. Zhou, G. G. Sutton, R. Clayton, O. White, H. O. Smith, C. M. Fraser,
M. D. Adams, J. C. Venter, The Institute for Genomic
Research, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
D. J. Carucci and S. L. Hoffman, Malaria Program, Naval
Medical Research Institute, 12300 Washington Avenue, Rockville, MD
20852, USA. L. Aravind, Department of Biology, Texas A & M
University, College Station, TX 70843, USA, and National Center for
Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. E. V. Koonin,
National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of
Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
J. Jing, C. Aston, Z. Lai, D. C. Schwartz, W. M. Keck
Laboratory for Biomolecular Imaging, Department of Chemistry, New York
University, New York, NY 10003, USA. M. Pertea, Department of
Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. S. Salzberg, The Institute for Genomic Research, 9712 Medical
Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA, and Department of Computer
Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
*
Present address: ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, 26 Landsdowne Street,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Present address: Celera Genomics, 45 West Gude Drive,
Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
hoffmans{at}nmripo.nmri.nnmc.navy.mil
