Consistent and contrasting properties of lineage-specific genes in the apicomplexan parasites Plasmodium and Theileria

Table 4 Characteristics of lineage-specific genes in Plasmodium falciparum

Gene set	Number of gene clusters	Number of P. falciparum genes	Average protein length (a.a.)	Frequency of genes with
				"Hypothetical protein" in product description	Pfam domains	Expression data	Predicted signal peptide or transmembrane domains
Pf1	768	803	718	0.26	0.96	0.92	0.16
Pf2	239	244	998	0.70	0.84	0.91	0.29
Pf3	340	346	650	0.66	0.74	0.88	0.49
Pf4	172	175	803	0.74	0.65	0.93	0.39
Pf5	1645	1687	839	0.88	0.53	0.87	0.41
Pf6	454	886	481	0.63	0.46	0.72	0.62
Pf6A	451	616	340	0.91	0.25	0.71	0.56

Gene sets from Pf1 through Pf6 refer to the orthologous gene clusters present in the six levels of lineage specificity defined in Figure 2. Pf6A is the same as Pf6 except that it excludes three surface antigen gene families (i.e., PfEMP1, rifin, and stevor). Note that there may be more than one P. falciparum gene in a gene cluster when paralogous genes are present in the genome.

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