Plasmodium falciparum parasites alternate between two different obligate hosts during their life cycle: humans and Anopheles mosquitoes. During the blood stage in the human host they proliferate asexually inside erythrocytes. A small proportion of parasites develops into male and female gametocytes, which enter the sexual part of the life cycle once taken up by a mosquito. The production of male and female gametocytes is therefore critical for malaria transmission. It has been shown that epigenetic processes play a role in this differentiation processes, however, the exact mechanisms remain unknown. To gain insight into these processes, we separated male and female gametocytes, based on the female specific expression of an endogenously GFP-tagged ABCG2 gene, using flow cytometry (male parasites as GFP low, female parasites as GFP high population). We subsequently performed ChIP-Seq for several histone variants and modifications (H2A.Z, H2A.Zac, H2B.Z, H3K4me3, H3R17me2, H3K27ac, H3K9me3) on day 6 of gametocytogenesis. Our study reveals a global remodelling of the chromatin landscape in gametocytes compared to asexual parasites, as well as sex specific differences.
Overall design: ChIP-Seq analysis of chromatin moditications and variants H2A.Z, H2A.Zac, H2B.Z, H3K4me3, H3R17me2, H3K27ac, H3K9me3 in immature male and female gametocytes
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