What are the -PA suffix after gene names?
Answer:
This notation represents translations. All translations are named after the gene, with addition of the suffix -Px, 'x' being a letter. Transcripts will have a "-Rx" suffix. This is based on the FlyBase notation.
E.g., given the AGP000123 gene in A. gambiae,
- the 1st transcript is "AGAP000123-RA" and the cognate translation is "AGAP000123-PA",
- the 2nd transcript is "AGAP000123-RB" and the cognate translation is "AGAP000123-PB",
- the 3rd transcript is "AGAP000123-RC" and the cognate translation is "AGAP000123-PC",
- etc.
It makes is easy to identify the gene given its translation identifier as you only need to remove the suffix to get the gene stable identifier.
If a transcript/translation is removed (because it was proved it doesn't exist), its ID will be remove but will NOT be reassigned. Thus the succession of letters might be interrupted.
