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Cooperative silencing elements in var genes

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Abstract

Each Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite carries about 50 var genes from a diverse family that encode variable adhesion proteins on the infected red blood cells of the host1,2,3, but individual parasites single out just one var gene for expression and silence all the others4,5. Here we show that this silencing is established during the DNA-synthesis phase (S phase) of the cell cycle and that it depends on the cooperative interaction between two elements in separate control regions of each var gene (the 5′-flanking region and the intron). This finding should help to clarify the mechanisms by which parasites coordinate the silencing and activation of var genes that are responsible for antigenic variation in malaria.

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Figure 1: The role of cooperative control elements in S-phase-dependent silencing of var expression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892-0425, Maryland, USA

    Kirk W. Deitsch, Michael S. Calderwood & Thomas E. Wellems

Authors
  1. Kirk W. Deitsch
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  2. Michael S. Calderwood
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  3. Thomas E. Wellems
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Correspondence to Thomas E. Wellems.

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brief communications is intended to provide a forum for both brief, topical reports of general scientific interest and technical discussion of recently published material of particular interest to non-specialist readers. Priority will be given to contributions that have fewer than 500 words, 10 references and only one figure. Detailed guidelines are available on Nature's website (http://www.nature.com) or on request from nature@nature.com

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Deitsch, K., Calderwood, M. & Wellems, T. Cooperative silencing elements in var genes. Nature 412, 875–876 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35091146

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