Genome-wide identification and characterization of transfer RNA-derived small RNAs in Plasmodium falciparum

In this study, we performed deep sequencing and bioinformatics analyses of short RNAs from Plasmodium falciparum parasites to identify and characterize novel type of small RNAs. A total of 14,828,877 raw reads were produced from small RNA libraries. We detected a new type of small RNA from tranfer RNA known as tRFs. Plasmodium falciparum small RNAs of 18–30 nt in length were extracted and purified from the total RNA of blood staged parasites. Small RNA libraries were constructed and sequenced by Illumina solexa sequencing.