Last Updated: 17/02/2016
Epigenetic variation in Plasmodium Falciparum: from regulatory mechanisms to adaptation of the parasite to the environment
Objectives
To continue the team’s investigations on the epigenetic regulation of clonally variant gene expression and its adaptive potential, with a strong focus on the clag gene family.
Specifically, the project aims to:
- explore the role of epigenetic variation and clonally variant gene expression in important P. falciparum biological pathways, with a focus on the clag gene family, involved in nutrient acquisition and resistance to toxic compounds, and pfap2-g, which is the master regulator of sexual conversion, a process necessary for malaria transmission.
- investigate how parasites adapt to heat-shock mimicking malaria cyclical fevers by studying both the chromatin-based mechanisms of epigenetic regulation and the function of these clonally variant genes.
- gain insight into how parasites use the epigenetic variation as an adaptive strategy to survive under different conditions of their human host.
Principal Institution
Principal Investigators / Focal Persons
Rationale and Abstract
Many genes of the parasite responsible for the most severe forms of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, are switched on in some individual parasites and switched off in others. The expression of these genes, termed clonally variant genes, is regulated at the epigenetic level. Importantly, clonally variant genes participate in key host-parasite interactions including antigenic variation, sexual conversion, nutrient acquisition or erythrocyte invasion.
External reference
Themes
Date
Jan 2014 — Dec 2016
Total Project Funding
$333,612
Funding Details
Project Site
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