Plasmodium RUF4 RNA

RUF4 is a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) present within the plasmodium genome. Bioinformatic studies predicted that RUF4 was present within the plasmodium genome and the expression of this ncRNA was verified by Northern Blot. The location of this ncRNAs was subsequently mapped within the P. falciparum strain 3DF genome by primer extension. RUF4 is a novel RNA of unknown function but has shown to contain some structural similarity with the H/ACA box snoRNA but no known targets have been identified.