This page contains published and unpublished data. Please consult individual project descriptions for details of our publication plans. Permission of the principal investigator should be obtained before publishing genome-scale or whole chromosome wide analyses based on unpublished sequences, genes or other features available form this site.

The most deadly of the four Plasmodium species that cause human malaria is the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria has a massive impact on human health; it is the worlds second biggest killer after tuberculosis. Around 300 million clinical cases occur each year resulting in between 1.5 - 2.7 million deaths annually, the majority in sub-saharan Africa. It is estimated that 3,000 children under the age of five years fall victim to malaria each day. Around 40 % of the worlds population are at risk and its is not known how this might be affected by possible climate change. The societies and economic development of some of the world's poorest nations are severely affected by malaria.

To maximise the benefits to the scientific community of Plasmodium genome sequencing, the Pathogen Genomics group is committed to the curation of Plasmodium spp. This will ensure that annotation is updated and maintained, and will form a framework that underpins global efforts to understand the parasite and the disease it causes. If you would like to contribute to the curation of any gene(s) please contact the curator ucb@sanger.ac.uk and visit GeneDB.
curation news archive

Sequencing status reports for each chromosome and P. falciparum Sequence data can be obtained on the chromosome pages. For a brief description of data available via the FTP sites. This includes both finished sequences which have already been submitted to the major databases as well as preliminary unfinished sequences. See the data release policy for more details.

The annotated chromosomes can be visualised using Artemis, a java enabled genome viewer and annotation tool written and provided by the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute. Alternatively, GeneDB provides an Artemis Applet which can be launched from each gene page allowing the gene of interest to be viewed in the context of the genome; the user defines the size of the upstream and downstream regions to be included. Gene annotation is constantly being revised and updated and we welcome your comments and suggestions via feedback.

The genome data are housed within GeneDB which supports both simple and more complex Boolean querying with a history feature which allows the manipulation of results sets. For a more detailed description of GeneDB. GeneDB houses seven other protozoan genomes, three fungal genomes and four bacterial genomes and supports the ability to do gene ontology based searches across organisms. Gene ontology provides a framework for accurate and consistent description of gene products via the use of a controlled vocabulary of GO terms, organised in a hierachical manner, to descibe the molecular function of gene products, processes in which they are involved and their cellular location (component). This functionality within GeneDB is supported by AmiGO; an ontology browse and search tool for ontology data within GeneDB and other sources. The GO consortium defines gene ontologies and provides tools and analysis.

Please address all sequencing enquiries to Dr. Arnab Pain (email: ap2@sanger.ac.uk).