Dataset Information

What functional genomics has taught us about transcriptional regulation in malaria parasites.

ABSTRACT: Malaria parasites are characterized by a complex life cycle that is accompanied by dynamic gene expression patterns. The factors and mechanisms that regulate gene expression in these parasites have been searched for even before the advent of next generation sequencing technologies. Functional genomics approaches have substantially boosted this area of research and have yielded significant insights into the interplay between epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Recently, considerable progress has been made in identifying sequence-specific transcription factors and DNA-encoded regulatory elements. Here, we review the insights obtained from these efforts including the characterization of core promoters, the involvement of sequence-specific transcription factors in life cycle progression and the mapping of gene regulatory elements. Furthermore, we discuss recent developments in the field of functional genomics and how they might contribute to further characterization of this complex gene regulatory network.

SUBMITTER: Toenhake CG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6859821 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

What functional genomics has taught us about transcriptional regulation in malaria parasites.

Toenhake Christa G CG Bártfai Richárd R

Briefings in functional genomics 20190901 5

Malaria parasites are characterized by a complex life cycle that is accompanied by dynamic gene expression patterns. The factors and mechanisms that regulate gene expression in these parasites have been searched for even before the advent of next generation sequencing technologies. Functional genomics approaches have substantially boosted this area of research and have yielded significant insights into the interplay between epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Recentl ...[more]

PMID: 31220867

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundMalaria is a one of the most important infectious diseases and is caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. Previously, quantitative characterization of the P. falciparum transcriptome demonstrated that the strictly controlled progression of these parasites through their intra-erythrocytic developmental cycle is accompanied by a continuous cascade of gene expression. Although such analyses have proven immensely useful, the correlations between abundance of transcripts and their cognate proteins remain poorly characterized.ResultsHere, we present a quantitative time-course analysis of relative protein abundance for schizont-stage parasites (34 to 46 hours after invasion) based on two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis of protein samples labeled with fluorescent dyes. For this purpose we analyzed parasite samples taken at 4-hour intervals from a tightly synchronized culture and established more than 500 individual protein abundance profiles with high temporal resolution and quantitative reproducibility. Approximately half of all profiles exhibit a significant change in abundance and 12% display an expression peak during the observed 12-hour time interval. Intriguingly, identification of 54 protein spots by mass spectrometry revealed that 58% of the corresponding proteins--including actin-I, enolase, eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)4A, eIF5A, and several heat shock proteins--are represented by more than one isoform, presumably caused by post-translational modifications, with the various isoforms of a given protein frequently showing different expression patterns. Furthermore, comparisons with transcriptome data generated from the same parasite samples reveal evidence of significant post-transcriptional gene expression regulation.ConclusionsTogether, our data indicate that both post-transcriptional and post-translational events are widespread and of presumably great biological significance during the intra-erythrocytic development of P. falciparum.

Dataset Information

What functional genomics has taught us about transcriptional regulation in malaria parasites.

Publications

What functional genomics has taught us about transcriptional regulation in malaria parasites.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets