An integrative bioinformatic predictor of protein sub-cellular localisation in malaria

The malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum remains a leading international cause of mortality, with almost a million deaths each year. Determination of protein subcellular localisation remains a challenge in Plasmodium parasites due to their evolutionary distance from wellstudied model organisms, and limited efficiency of appropriate molecular tools. However, abundant large scale systems biology information exist for several Plasmodium species as well as other apicomplexan parasites, including full genomic DNA sequences, plus data sets relating to the transcriptome, protein expression and interactions, polymorphisms and phyletic profiles. To date, most bioinformatic predictors of sub-cellular localisation use sequence information exclusively without consideration for other data sets.