Amit Kumar Subudhi, Judith L Green, Rohit Satyam, Rahul P Salunke, Todd Lenz, Muhammad Shuaib, Ioannis Isaioglou, Steven Abel, Mohit Gupta, Luke Esau, Tobias Mourier, Raushan Nugmanova, Sara Mfarrej, Rupali Shivapurkar, Zenaida Stead, Fathia Ben Rached, Yogesh Ostwal, Rachid Sougrat, Ashraf Dada, Abdullah Fuaad Kadamany, Wolfgang Fischle, Jasmeen Merzaban, Ellen Knuepfer, David J P Ferguson, Ishaan Gupta, Karine G Le Roch, Anthony A Holder, Arnab Pain
Malaria-associated pathogenesis such as parasite invasion, egress, host cell remodelling and antigenic variation requires concerted action by many proteins, but the molecular regulation is poorly understood. Here we have characterized an essential Plasmodium-specific Apicomplexan AP2 transcription factor in Plasmodium falciparum (PfAP2-P; pathogenesis) during the blood-stage development with two peaks of expression. An inducible knockout of gene function showed that PfAP2-P is essential for trophozoite development, and critical for var gene regulation, merozoite development and parasite egress...
November 2023: Nature Microbiology