Re-annotation of the Theileria parva genome refines 53% of the proteome and uncovers essential components of N-glycosylation, a conserved pathway in many organisms

Background: Genome annotation remains a significant challenge because of limitations in the quality and quantity of the data being used to inform the location and function of protein-coding genes and, when RNA data are used, the underlying biological complexity of the processes involved in gene expression. However, comprehensive and descriptive genome annotations are valuable resources for answering biological research questions and discovering novel chemotherapeutic targets for disease treatment. Results: Here, we apply our recently published RNAseq dataset derived from the schizont life-cycle stage of the apicomplexan parasite Theileria parva, which causes a devastating livestock disease in sub-Saharan Africa, to update structural and functional annotations across the entire nuclear genome. Conclusions: The process of re-annotation led to novel insights into the organization and expression profiles of protein-coding sequences in this parasite, and uncovered a minimal N-glycosylation pathway that changes our current understanding of the evolution of this post-translation modification in apicomplexan parasites.