PhenoPlasm: a database of disruption phenotypes for malaria parasite genes.

Two decades after the first transfection, attempts have been made to disrupt more than 3,151 genes in malaria parasites, across five species. While results from rodent malaria transfections have been curated and systematised, empowering large-scale analysis, phenotypic data from human malaria parasite transfections currently exists as individual reports scattered across a the literature. To facilitate systematic analysis of published experimental genetic data across species, we have built PhenoPlasm ( http://www.phenoplasm.org), a database of phenotypes generated by transfection experiments in all parasites. The site provides a simple interface linking citation-backed reverse-genetic phenotypes to gene IDs. The database has been populated with phenotypic data on 367 genes, curated from 176 individual publications, as well as existing data on rodent species from RMgmDB and PlasmoGEM. This is the first time that all available data on transfection experiments has been brought together in a single place. These data are presented using ortholog mapping to allow a researcher interested in a gene in one species to see results across other species. The collaborative nature of the database enables any researcher to add new phenotypes as they are discovered. As an example of database utility, we use the currently available datasets to identify RAP (RNA-binding domain abundant in Apicomplexa)-domain containing proteins as crucial to parasite survival.