Automatic prediction of PTMs in Ehrlichia ruminantium – creating new datasets for Quickmod analyses

Ehrlichia ruminantium (ER) is an obligate intracellular bacterium, from the order Rickettsiales, which causes Heartwater, a fatal tick-borne disease in ruminants. This disease is a major limitation to livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa and in some Caribbean islands. Recent studies showed that key proteins such as the Major Antigenic Protein 1 (MAP1) are glycosylated (Postigo et al., 2008) and that about 25 % of ER proteome account for isoforms, indicating the importance of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in the ER infection process (Marcelino et al., 2012).