Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
9
pubmed:dateCreated
2010-9-14
pubmed:abstractText
Plasmodium parasites, the causal agents of malaria, result in more than 1 million deaths annually. Plasmodium are unicellular eukaryotes with small ?23 Mb genomes encoding ?5200 protein-coding genes. The protein-coding genes comprise about half of these genomes. Although evolutionary processes have a significant impact on malaria control, the selective pressures within Plasmodium genomes are poorly understood, particularly in the non-protein-coding portion of the genome. We use evolutionary methods to describe selective processes in both the coding and non-coding regions of these genomes. Based on genome alignments of seven Plasmodium species, we show that protein-coding, intergenic and intronic regions are all subject to purifying selection and we identify 670 conserved non-genic elements. We then use genome-wide polymorphism data from P. falciparum to describe short-term selective processes in this species and identify some candidate genes for balancing (diversifying) selection. Our analyses suggest that there are many functional elements in the non-genic regions of these genomes and that adaptive evolution has occurred more frequently in the protein-coding regions of the genome.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Sep
pubmed:issn
1553-7404
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
6
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:dateRevised
2011-3-11
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2010
pubmed:articleTitle
Long- and short-term selective forces on malaria parasite genomes.
pubmed:affiliation
Bioinformatics Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't