NCBI-CBB Seminar.  11:00 AM Tuesday May 4 1999, NCBI Conference Room,
                   Building 38A, 8th Floor, NLM/NIH.


High-resolution genetic parameters for a malaria parasite genome
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John Wootton, NCBI

I will describe some of the essential, but relatively unfamiliar, genetic 
theories and methods involved in the comprehensive genetic map project of 
the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum (Tom Wellems' laboratory 
in close collaboration with NCBI [1]).  From a large set of sequence-tagged
markers and segregation data [2], genome-wide parameters, for example haploid 
segregation patterns and distributions of meiotic recombination events, 
were inferred. The haplotype data were particularly suitable for Poisson
process analysis of crossover count-location structures, using methods 
similar to those pioneered by Liberman and Karlin [review, 3].  The markers, 
data, and parameters provide a powerful resource for assigning genes, 
including multiple genes and QTLs, to functional traits of P. falciparum, 
particularly together with allelic association ("linkage disequilibrium") 
studies of parasite populations in the field.  Similar approaches may
facilitate the functional genomics of other organisms.  In this outline, no 
prior knowledge of genetic theory or of malaria will be assumed.

[1]  Xin-zhuan Su, Michael Ferdig, Yaming Huang, Chuong Q. Huynh, Anna Liu,
Jingtao You, John C. Wootton and Thomas E. Wellems (1999)  A Comprehensive
Genetic Map of the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
(Manuscript)

[2]  Segregation data tables, dbSTS and GenBank links are available at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Malaria/markersNmaps.html

[3]  Karlin S, Liberman U (1994)  Theoretical recombination processes
incorporating interference effects.  Theor. Popul. Biol. 46:198-231.