In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Karine Le Roch from the University of California at Riverside about her work on malaria chromatin structure and its transcriptional regulation.

In this Interview Dr. Le Roch discusses her investigation of post-transcriptional controls and nucleosome positioning in Plasmodium falciparum, employing next-generation sequencing and chromatin profiling methods. Karin emphasizes how these methodologies contribute to a comprehensive understanding of gene regulation beyond mere transcription initiation, emphasizing the significance of mRNA binding proteins and their role in stabilizing gene transcripts for translation. This exploration of the interaction between chromatin structure, transcriptional dynamics, and post-transcriptional regulation reveals a multidimensional perspective of gene expression.

Transitioning to her lab’s focus on high-throughput genomic technologies, we discuss how Karin and her team are uncovering conserved and species-specific genomic organization principles within various Plasmodium species. By generating 3D genomic models through Hi-C experiments, she describes how they have identified patterns that underline the parasite's immune evasion strategies. In particular, we learn how genes involved in antigenic variation are controlled through intricate epigenetic mechanisms, illuminating the pathways that allow these parasites to elude host immune responses.

Le Roch, K. G., Zhou, Y., Blair, P. L., Grainger, M., Moch, J. K., Haynes, J. D., De La Vega, P., Holder, A. A., Batalov, S., Carucci, D. J., & Winzeler, E. A. (2003). Discovery of gene function by expression profiling of the malaria parasite life cycle. Science (New York, N.Y.), 301(5639), 1503–1508. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1087025

Ponts, N., Harris, E. Y., Prudhomme, J., Wick, I., Eckhardt-Ludka, C., Hicks, G. R., Hardiman, G., Lonardi, S., & Le Roch, K. G. (2010). Nucleosome landscape and control of transcription in the human malaria parasite. Genome research, 20(2), 228–238. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.101063.109

Bunnik, E. M., Cook, K. B., Varoquaux, N., Batugedara, G., Prudhomme, J., Cort, A., Shi, L., Andolina, C., Ross, L. S., Brady, D., Fidock, D. A., Nosten, F., Tewari, R., Sinnis, P., Ay, F., Vert, J. P., Noble, W. S., & Le Roch, K. G. (2018). Changes in genome organization of parasite-specific gene families during the Plasmodium transmission stages. Nature communications, 9(1), 1910. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04295-5

Epigenetics in Human Malaria Parasites (Elena Gómez-Diaz)

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