Genes found to be significantly differentially expressed in wild type sporozoites compared to mixed blood stages were placed into functional categories based on their annotated functions.
Species were placed into functional groups based on personal observations of foraging behavior and food choice, nesting ecology, and natural history descriptions taken from available literature.
Expression data obtained from control and stressed plants were loaded into MapMan pathways, and genes were placed into functional categories and biochemical pathways.
Using the AT number of the best Arabidopsis hits, the putative Triphysaria proteins were placed into functional categories using the Gene Ontology at TAIR [ 30].
To learn more about the types of gene expression differences between the two tissue types, the 496 differentially expressed genes (listed in additional files 1 and 2) were placed into functional categories using Gene Ontology (GO) Annotations.
For example, all species of Hylomyrma were categorized as Scavengers/Soil and Leaf Litter Nesters, whereas all species of Nesomyrmex were categorized as Unknown Canopy Nesters, but if more detailed dietary and nesting information was known, individual species within these genera might more appropriately be placed into different functional groups.
Of these, 1 726 could be placed into the functional groups defined by MIPS, leaving a relatively large proportion of the genes (approx. 40%) outside of this classification.
Seventeen of the 26 suppressors identified from the lin-35 ; slr-2 screen can be placed into three functional classes: (1) ribosome biogenesis genes, (2) mitochondrial prohibitins, and (3) synMuv suppressors.
Most of the 47 candidate biomarker proteins identified in this study can be placed into structural and/or functional categories (e.g. synaptic adhesion, synaptic function, dense core synaptic vesicle proteins, inflammation/complement, protease activity/inhibition, apolipoproteins, etc).
However, it is clear that over half of the genes identified in this study could be placed into a potential functional category based on similarity to previously characterized genes.
