Putative Cell Cycle Related Genes in Plasmodium Falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of human malaria, has a dynamic life cycle encompassing the mosquito vector and human hosts. Complex and atypical cell cycles are observed in malaria parasites. Cell cycle related proteins which play important roles in parasite life cycle, but distantly related to host proteins, may serve as desirable drug targets. In this study, based on the principle of homology transfer, we attempted to identify putative cell cycle control proteins in P. falciparum, using the well-characterized yeast cell cycle as a template. The malaria parasite genome contains the core cell cycle components including cyclin, cyclin-dependent kinases, transcription factors, DNA replication factors and DNA repair proteins. The ldquomissing linksrdquo in the cell cycle regulation map may represent parasite lineage-specific regulators.