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Malaria

Malaria

Malaria pathogenesis in humans reflects a delicate interplay between parasite biology and host response. Clinical illness reflects a host’s immune response to the parasite’s asexual replication cycle, which is often asymptomatic in individuals with partial immunity. From the parasite's perspective, transmission between mosquito and human with minimal host pathology is evolutionarily advantageous. Among the six Plasmodium species infecting humans, P. falciparum and P. vivax dominate in global...

Spreading of Chromatin Modifications

Spreading of Chromatin Modifications

The histone proteins in the nucleosomes are post-translationally modified (PTM) to increase or decrease access to DNA. The commonly observed PTMs are methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitination of lysine amino acids in the histone H3 tail region. These histone modifications have specific meaning for the cell. Hence, they are called "histone code". The protein complex involved in histone modification is termed as "reader-writer" complex.
Writers
The writer is an enzyme that can...

Histone Modification

Histone Modification

The histone proteins have a flexible N-terminal tail extending out from the nucleosome. These histone tails are often subjected to post-translational modifications such as acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitination. Particular combinations of these modifications form “histone codes” that influence the chromatin folding and tissue-specific gene expression.
Acetylation
The enzyme histone acetyltransferase adds acetyl group to the histones. Another enzyme, histone deacetylase,...

Histone Modification

Histone Modification

The histone proteins have a flexible N-terminal tail extending out from the nucleosome. These histone tails are often subjected to post-translational modifications such as acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitination. Particular combinations of these modifications form “histone codes” that influence the chromatin folding and tissue-specific gene expression.
Acetylation
The enzyme histone acetyltransferase adds acetyl group to the histones. Another enzyme, histone deacetylase,...

Histone Variants at the Centromere

Histone Variants at the Centromere

Histone variants are the histone proteins with structural and sequence variations. These variants may be regarded as “mutant” forms that replace their canonical histone counterparts in the nucleosomes. Specific post-translational modifications on the histone variants enable further chromatin complexity and regulate tissue-specific gene expression. The most common histone variants are from histone H2A, H2B, and linker histone H1 families. However, several variants of histone H3 variants are also...

Position-effect Variegation

Position-effect Variegation

In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.

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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Understanding the Development of Compensatory Pathways in a Mutant Malaria Parasite Harbouring Hypomorphic Allele of Plant-Like Kinases

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Unravelling a histone code for malaria virulence.

Christy A Comeaux¹, Manoj T Duraisingh

¹Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Molecular Microbiology

|November 22, 2007

Summary

Epigenetic regulation of Plasmodium falciparum var genes involves specific histone modifications. Histone methylation patterns correlate with active, poised, or silenced var gene loci, suggesting a transcriptional memory mechanism.

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Understanding the Development of Compensatory Pathways in a Mutant Malaria Parasite Harbouring Hypomorphic Allele of Plant-Like Kinases

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Area of Science:

Molecular biology
Parasitology
Epigenetics

Background:

Plasmodium falciparum evades the host immune system by regulating virulence var genes.
Understanding var gene regulation is crucial for developing new malaria treatments.

Discussion:

Lopez-Rubio et al. investigated histone modifications associated with var gene transcriptional states.
Quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed distinct methylation patterns for active, poised, and silenced var genes.

Key Insights:

H3K4me2 and H3K4me3 are enriched near active var loci.
H3K9me3 is enriched in the coding regions of silenced var genes.
H3K4me2 may bookmark active var loci for future expression, indicating transcriptional memory.

Outlook:

Further research is needed to catalogue all histone modifications involved in var gene regulation.
Functional studies will elucidate the precise mechanisms of var gene epigenetic control.