Global transcriptomic changes of either cell cycle arrested parasites or cell cycle re-entered asexual P. falciparum 3D7 parasites.
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ABSTRACT: Parasitic protists, including Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites, evolved sophisticated biological features to adapt and survive in e.g. mosquito vectors and mammalian hosts. The parasite’s life cycle is extraordinarily controlled, oscillating between quiescent stages (e.g. sporozoites or gametocytes) and stages of intense proliferation. The atypical mode of asexual reproduction in erythrocytes (schizogony: asynchronous nuclear division in the absence of cytokinesis), is clearly divergent from cell division in higher eukaryotes but the mechanisms that control cell cycle progression are poorly understood. Here, depletion of exogenous factors was used to induce reversible cell cycle arrest and allowed transcriptomic investigations of cell cycle control mechanisms operating in the parasite. We show that in early stages of erythrocyte infection, parasites enter a quiescent, G0-like state due to implementation of a G1 restriction point prior to G1/S transition. This quiescence is reversible, with cells making a clear decision to re-engage the proliferation machinery in response to proliferation stimuli. Cell cycle arrest is an adaptive response rather than merely prolongation of the G1 phase, as demonstrated by a distinct transcriptome. The quiescence-proliferation decision-making process in malaria parasites has hallmarks of unique regulatory principles: quiescence is associated with a deregulation of the pre-replicative complex, underlined by transcriptional control of kinases, including PfPK5 as putative functional homologue of the master mammalian cell cycle regulator, CDK1. Cell cycle re-entry is highly coordinated and mediated by a set of early responsive transcripts involving NIMA and Aurora kinases, ApiAP2 transcription factors and calcium signaling. We therefore show that Apicomplexa are able to perform quiescence-proliferation decision-making in a highly coordinated fashion, using atypical cell cycle regulation machinery.
ORGANISM(S): Plasmodium falciparum
PROVIDER: GSE92289 | GEO | 2016/12/13
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA357102
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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