Figure 4

Chromosomal location of exported P. falciparum proteins and synteny with P. vivax and P. yoelii contigs. (a) Map of 14 P. falciparum chromosomes showing the location of exported genes conserved in Plasmodium, or only in the P. vivax and P. falciparum lineages. Location of var genes is shown for reference purposes, and PHIST genes are coloured. Shaded loci correspond to regions of synteny depicted in (b): 5 syntenic loci on P. falciparum chromosomes 2, 3 and 10 containing conserved exported genes. P. falciparum chromosomes are shown in green, P. vivax contigs in blue, and P. yoelii contigs in red. Gene positions are represented by arrows; yellow arrows on P. falciparum chromosomes represent exported genes. Locations of P. vivax genes are inferred by reciprocal best hits homology, or where less stringent homology is augmented by parsimonious strand information and neighbourhood synteny. P. yoelli genes and orthology are as extracted from PlasmoDB [34]. Locus 1 on chromosome 2 shows that synteny begins with incomplete homology between KAHRP. Loci 1, 2 and 5 show conservation of PHISTc family members, but not of PHISTb. Loci 4 and 5 suggest an explanation for clusters of exported genes in central locations on P. falciparum chromosomes. In both cases exported genes exist at the ends of extremely long contigs, suggesting that they are subtelomerically located whereas the syntenic P. falciparum genes in locus 5 are centrally located. Locus 5 also demonstrates the breakdown in synteny at the location of PHISTc genes in P. yoelli.