Table 1. Plasmodium [Fe-S] biosynthesis pathway proteins of the apicoplast.

Gene name	Predicted function	P. berghei a	P. falciparum a	ApicoAPb	PlasmoAPb	PlasMitb	MitoProtIIb
SUFA	[Fe–S] cluster transfer protein	PBANKA_123740	PF3D7_0522700	ApicoTP	++/++	non-mito (99%)	0.9862
SUFB	Sulfur mobilization scaffold protein	PBANKA_API0012	PFC10_API0012	–	–	–	–
SUFC	Sulfur mobilization scaffold protein	PBANKA_102920	PF3D7_1413500	No SP	0/++	mito (91%)	0.5104
SUFD	Sulfur mobilization, complexed withSUFB & C	PBANKA_094350	PF3D7_1103400	ApicoTP	++/++	non-mito (99%)	0.5501
SUFE	Desulfurase activator and sulfide“transferase”	PBANKA_030380	PF3D7_0206100	ApicoTP	++/++	non-mito (99%)	0.9182
SUFS	Cysteine desulfurase	PBANKA_061430	PF3D7_0716600	ApicoTP	++/++	non-mito (99%)	0.2619
NFUapi	NifU-like scaffold protein	PBANKA_082230	PF3D7_0921400	ApicoTP	++/++	non-mito (99%)	0.2084

^aGene IDs of the P. berghei and P. falciparum orthologs (http://PlasmoDB.org).

^bPutative targeting of the P. falciparum SUF pathway proteins to the apicoplast or mitochondrion was predicted using four different algorithms. ApicoAP [35] predicts whether a given protein lacks the required signal peptide (“No SP”), contains a signal peptide but no transit peptide (“non-ApicoTP”), or is an apicoplast targeted protein (“ApicoTP”) that uses the bipartite signaling mechanism. PlasmoAP [36] indicates the likelihood of the presence of the required signal peptide followed by the likelihood of an apicoplast localization (“-” = unlikely, “0″ = undecided, “+” = likely, “++” = very likely). PlasMit [37] predicts the likelihood of a mitochondrial localization for P. falciparum proteins (“non-mito (99%)”, “mito (91%)”, and “mito (99%)”). MitoProtII [38] gives a probability score for the likelihood of mitochondrial localization but is not optimized Plasmodium sequences. Note that no analysis was done for SUFB as the gene is encoded on the apicoplast genome and hence needs no targeting sequences.