Figure 2.

Mosaic organization of the Babesia microti chromosome extremities. Chromosome ends are labeled according to Figure S2. These regions are characterized by the presence of duplicated sequences scattered among the different chromosome extremities (S1–S8). Limits of sequence homologies have been calculated using miropeat and BLASTN analyses. Annotated genes are indicated on the figure. Most repeated genes are part of the bmn gene family and included truncated genes and pseudogenes. Several bmn genes are in transition regions between two duplicated sequences. The S2 sequence encoding a putative VESA antigen is repeated three times. The S4 sequence encodes Tpr orthologues and is repeated four times, two copies of which on chromosome ends IIb and IIIa are significantly shorter. The GC content in the chromosome ends is significantly lower than in the coding core. The sequence between S1 and S4 at extremity Ib encodes a putative sugar transporter (TM). The sequence is not duplicated but does not show any base composition bias compared to adjacent regions. It was not possible to precisely map the recombination sites associated with the rearrangements that took place at chromosome ends (average resolution of 100 bp).