1 Introduction Plasmodium P. falciparum Toxoplasma T. gondii Cryptosporidia C. parvum C. hominis Neospora N. caninum Babesia B. bovis Theileria T. parva T. annulata [1] [2–5] [6] T. parva T. annulata [7] P. falciparum http://www.plasmodb.org http://www.genedb.org [8] Theileria Babesia Plasmodia Toxoplasma Neospora [9–11] Cryptosporidia [12] P. falciparum [3,4,13,14] T. parva T. parva [15] P. falciparum [16] [1,17] [16] P. falciparum rab rab [3,4,14] [8] Plasmodia [8] rab Toxoplasma Neospora Theileria Babesia Cryptosporidia Plasmodia Toxoplasma 2 Theileria rab T. parva T. annulata P. falciparum rab Theileria rab rab5b rab18 Table 1 T. annulata rab T. annulata rab T. annulata rabs rabs [7] T. parva [18] T. parva [18] T. parva DQ825390 [18] ras T. annulata B. bovis 3 T. parva rab T. parva [15] T. parva rab Table 2 T. annulata rab rab1b rab11b [15] rabs T. annulata Table 1 T. parva T. annulata Theileria rab T. parva rab rab1a rab2 rab ran Table 2 T. parva [15] rab P. falciparum [19,20] T. parva [15] rab11a i.e. rab Table 2 rab Fig. 1 rab Theileria rab Plasmodia [21,22] T. annulata T. parva rab Fig. 1 4 P. falciparum rab P. falciparum [3,4] rabs [23] [14,24] P. falciparum rab rab1a rab1b rab5a rab5c vps34 Fig. 2 rab2 rab5b rab6 rab11b Fig. 2 rab rab7 rab11a rab18 vps34 rab5a rab5c rab5b [8] rab5a rab5c rab5b [8] rab5b rab5a rab5c rab5b rab2 rab6 rab11b rab7 rab11a rab18 5 rab P. falciparum [17] [16] Plasmodium P. falciparum rab Fig. 3 [16] rab Table 3 6 Phylogenetic analysis indicated a core set of essential Rabs in Apicomplexa P. falciparum T. annulata T. parva Table 1 Babesia Plasmodia Theileria Babesia P. falciparum [8] P. falciparum P. berghei [11] Theileria Babesia Plasmodia Toxoplasma Cryptosporidia Fig. 4 T. gondii Plasmodia C. parvum C. hominis [1,25] Plasmodia [8,11] P. falciparum P. berghei T. gondii Fig. 4 N. caninum Plasmodia Toxoplasma Neospora [26] [27] [28] Plasmodia Toxoplasma Neospora 7 Discussion Theileria Plasmodium Theileria Babesia Plasmodia Toxoplasma Cryptosporida Fig. 4 [8] Fig. 4 Cryptosporidia Toxoplasma Neospora Cryptosporidia Theileria Fig. 4 [8] T. parva T. annulata Fig. 5 Theileria Babesia Toxoplasma Supplementary Fig. S4 Fig. 5 Theileria Fig. 4 Toxoplasma Toxoplasma Fig. 5 Plasmodia [8,11] Theileria Babesia Toxoplasma Plasmodia Plasmodia Theileria Babesia Toxoplasma Babesia Plasmodia Theileria [8] Toxoplasma Plasmodia Toxoplasma Neospora Fig. 5 Crypstosporida [9] rab Theileria Plasmodia rab T. parva rab ran Table 2 rab rab2 T. parva rab1a rab P. falciparum [16] P. falciparum rab Figs. 2 and 3 rabs Fig. 4 Table 3 rab T. parva P. falciparum rab i.e. rab rab Appendix Supplementary data     Appendix Supplementary material doi:10.1016/j.micinf.2008.01.017