ERC Starting Grant · 2020
Uncovering the Mechanisms Behind Adaptive Gene Expression Switching in Malaria Parasites
The malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum has evolved a strategy of clonally variant gene expression to control essential biological processes like antigenic variation and sexual commitment during its persistent blood-stage infection of the human host. Heritable epigenetic silencing of the underlying specialized gene families ensures the limited expression of only a subset of these genes at any time. Switching the expression of individual clonally variant genes enables the parasite to rapidly adapt to changes in its environment, evade the immune system and switch its cell cycle to the development of mosquito-transmissible gametocyte stages. Expression switching of these clonally…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.