Computational analysis of the Plasmodium vivax transcriptome and genome: bioinformatics contributions for the malaria investigation

Author(s)

Bruna Renata Silva Corrêa

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Matemática e Estatística (IME/SBI)
• Defense date: 2012-04-02

Examining board members

Ricardo Zorzetto Nicoliello Vencio; David Corrêa Martins Junior; Eduardo Moraes Rego Reis

• Advisor: Ricardo Zorzetto Nicoliello Vencio

Abstract

Plasmodium vivax is the parasite that causes the human malaria type with the largest global distribution and it is responsible for quality of life impairment of millions of people around the world. The general purpose of this study was contribute to understand the mechanism used by P. vivax to scape from the host spleen elimination, through statistical methodologies and bioinformatics. First of all, we carried out statistical analysis of a microarray experiment conducted earlier by the collaborators of this study, using Aotus lemurinus griseimembra as model organism, in order to identify genes of P. vivax expressed only in parasites extracted from monkeys with intact spleen. In the second step, we designed a tiling array containing 5\'UTR, 3\'UTR and all the exons of the P. vivax genome, which will be used to perform more experiments to investigate the role of the spleen on the parasite gene expression. In the last step, we add information to the functional annotation of P. vivax genome, through an automated methodology, to improve the biological interpretation of the results previously obtained and in future studies. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/11865-7 - Systems Biology of Plasmodium vivax: parasite's genome and transcriptome computational analysis
• Grantee: Bruna Renata Silva Corrêa
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master