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Background  Malaria parasites that infect birds can have narrow or broad host-tropisms. These differences in host specificity make avian malaria a useful model for studying the evolution and transmission of parasite assemblages across geographic ranges. The molecular mechanisms involved in host-specificity and the biology of avian malaria parasites in general are important aspects of malaria pathogenesis that warrant further examination. Here, the transcriptome of the malaria parasite  Plasmodium gallinaceum  was characterized to investigate the biology and the conservation of genes across various malaria parasite species.    Methods  The  P. gallinaceum  transcriptome was annotated and KEGG pathway mapping was performed. The  ripr  gene and orthologous genes that play critical roles in the purine salvage pathway were identified and characterized using bioinformatics and phylogenetic methods.    Results  Analysis of the transcriptome sequence database identified essential genes of the purine salvage pathway in  P. gallinaceum  that shared high sequence similarity to  Plasmodium falciparum  when compared to other mammalian  Plasmodium  spp. However, based on the current sequence data, there was a lack of orthologous genes that belonged to the erythrocyte-binding-like (EBL) and reticulocyte-binding-like homologue (RH) family in  P. gallinaceum . In addition, an orthologue of the Rh5 interacting protein ( ripr ) was identified.    Conclusions  These findings suggest that the pathways involved in parasite red blood cell invasion are significantly different in avian  Plasmodium  parasites, but critical metabolic pathways are conserved throughout divergent  Plasmodium  taxa.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-015-0814-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

malaria journal

De novo assembly and transcriptome analysis of Plasmodium gallinaceum identifies the Rh5 interacting protein (ripr), and reveals a lack of EBL and RH gene family diversification