Single-molecule analysis reveals that DNA replication dynamics vary across the course of schizogony in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

ABSTRACT: The mechanics of DNA replication and cell cycling are well-characterized in model organisms, but less is known about these basic aspects of cell biology in early-diverging Apicomplexan parasites, which do not divide by canonical binary fission but undergo unconventional cycles. Schizogony in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, generates ~16-24 new nuclei via independent, asynchronous rounds of genome replication prior to cytokinesis and little is known about the control of DNA replication that facilitates this. We have characterised replication dynamics in P. falciparum throughout schizogony, using DNA fibre labelling and combing to visualise replication forks at a single-molecule level. We show that origins are very closely spaced in Plasmodium compared to most model systems, and that repli

SUBMITTER: Stanojcic S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5479783 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature