Short CommunicationGenome wide computational analysis of Brugia malayi helicases: A comparison with human host

The availability of Brugia malayi genome sequence has paved ways for the search of homologues for a variety of genes. Helicases are ubiquitous enzymes involved in all the nucleic acid metabolic pathways and are essential for the development and growth. The genome wide analysis of B. malayi for different helicases showed the presence of a number of DEAD box helicases, 7 DEAH box helicases, RecQ helicases, repair helicases, super killer helicases, MCM2-7 complex, Rad54 and two subunits of Ku helicase. The comparison of protein sequence of each helicase with its human counterpart indicated characteristic differences in filarial helicases. There are noticeable differences in some of the filarial helicases such as DHX35, RecQL1 and Ku. Further characterization of these helicases will help in understanding physiological significance of these helicases in filarial parasites, which in future can be utilized for chemotherapy of parasitic infection.

Genome wide analysis of helicases from Brugia malayi shows that there are some differences in domain structure of some of the helicases of B. malayi.391Highlights► Comprehensive analysis of filarial parasite Brugia malayi helicases is reported. ► Our results show that genome contains a number of DEAD box and 7 DEAH box helicases. ► B. malayi genome also contains Ku, MCM, Rad54, Rec Q and super killer helicases. ► The comparison of all B. malayi helicases with human homologues is also presented.