Figure 3

PfMC-2TM is conserved in rodent malaria parasites and related to P. falciparum HYP2 and HYP8 proteins through the novel MC-TYR domain. (A) Members of the P. falciparum gene families Pfmc-2TM, hyp8 and hyp2 as well as six rodent parasite genes share a conserved ~70 aa domain named MC-TYR (dark blue) located between the PEXEL/VTS motif (shown in red) and the two C-terminal transmembrane domains (TM, shown in black). TM domains in dark gray are predicted by Phobius but not TMHMM. SignalP predicted signal peptides (SP) shown in yellow. The phylogenetic tree to the left is a bootstrap consensus tree based on the MC-TYR alignment shown in panel B. Numbers represent bootstrap values (values below 60 not shown). (B) T-coffee multiple sequence alignment of MC-TYR. The name stands for Maurer’s clefts tyrosine domain due to two almost invariably conserved tyrosine residues (Y, indicated by arrows), which are of potential functional importance. Top row: ‘H’ denotes residues within predicted alpha helices, thus MC-TYR has a predicted three alpha-helical secondary structure (SS).