About

Apicomplexans undergo a complex life cycle during its development across different tissues of vectors and host(s). The habitat change involves spatial and temporal regulation of parasite gene expression, stringently mediated by the Transcription Factors (TFs) and other regulators. Therefore, to understand the life cycle complexity, the identification and characterization of TFs and Transcription-Associated Factors (TAFs) in different parasites is obligatory. However, despite the progress, the numbers of annotated TFs and TAFs in different apicomplexan genomes are extremely limited. Therefore, in this work we set to predict the novel set of TFs and TAFs across 14 apicomplexan species. We also present a user-friendly database, viz. ApicoTFdb, for hosting and analyzing the apicomplexan TFs and TAFs . The current version of the database includes 1307 predicted TFs from 21 distinct TF families and 2490 TAFs, which are manually curated to complement the existing knowledge. The database is also equipped with a useful tools for the comparative analysis of user defined list of regulators. ApicoTFdb aims to target those researchers exploring the gene regulatory mechanisms involved in mediating the complex life cycle of the apicomplexan parasites to discover novel drug targets and to combat the rising drug resistance.