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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Phenotypic Analysis of Rodent Malaria Parasite Asexual and Sexual Blood Stages and Mosquito Stages
Published on: May 30, 2019
GDV1 induces sexual commitment of malaria parasites by antagonizing HP1-dependent gene silencing
Michael Filarsky1,2, Sabine A Fraschka3, Igor Niederwieser1,2
1Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, 4051 Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites that proliferate in the bloodstream. During each replication cycle, some parasites differentiate into gametocytes, the only forms able to infect the mosquito vector and transmit malaria. Sexual commitment is triggered by activation of AP2-G, the master transcriptional regulator of gametocytogenesis. Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1)-dependent silencing of ap2-g prevents sexual conversion in proliferating parasites. In this study, we identified Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte development 1 (GDV1) as an upstream activator of sexual commitment. We found that GDV1 targeted heterochromatin and triggered HP1 eviction, thus derepressing ap2-g Expression of GDV1 was responsive to environmental triggers of sexual conversion and controlled via a gdv1 antisense RNA. Hence, GDV1 appears to act as an effector protein that induces sexual differentiation by antagonizing HP1-dependent gene silencing.
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