“Plasmo2D”:  An Ancillary Proteomic Tool to Aid Identification of Proteins from Plasmodium falciparum

Bioinformatics tools to aid gene and protein sequence analysis have become an integral part of biology in the post-genomic era. Release of the Plasmodium falciparum genome sequence has allowed biologists to define the gene and the predicted protein content as well as their sequences in the parasite. Using pI and molecular weight as characteristics unique to each protein, we have developed a bioinformatics tool to aid identification of proteins from Plasmodium falciparum. The tool makes use of a Virtual 2-DE generated by plotting all of the proteins from the Plasmodium database on a pI versus molecular weight scale. Proteins are identified by comparing the position of migration of desired protein spots from an experimental 2-DE and that on a virtual 2-DE. The procedure has been automated in the form of user-friendly software called “Plasmo2D”. The tool can be downloaded from http://144.16.89.25/Plasmo2D.zip. Keywords: Plasmo2D • bioinformatics • proteomics • malaria • heat shock proteins