PfSETvs methylation of histone H3K36 represses virulence genes in Plasmodium falciparum.

ABSTRACT: The variant antigen Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), which is expressed on the surface of P. falciparum-infected red blood cells, is a critical virulence factor for malaria. Each parasite has 60 antigenically distinct var genes that each code for a different PfEMP1 protein. During infection the clonal parasite population expresses only one gene at a time before switching to the expression of a new variant antigen as an immune-evasion mechanism to avoid the host antibody response. The mechanism by which 59 of the 60 var genes are silenced remains largely unknown. Here we show that knocking out the P. falciparum variant-silencing SET gene (here termed PfSETvs), which encodes an orthologue of Drosophila melanogaster ASH1 and controls histone H3 lysine 36 trimethy

SUBMITTER: Jiang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3770130 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature