# name
Deciphering the principles that govern mutually exclusive
                expression of Plasmodium falciparum clag3 genes

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
The product of the Plasmodium falciparum genes clag3.1 and
                clag3.2 plays a fundamental role in malaria parasite biology by
                determining solute transport into infected erythrocytes.
                Expression of the two clag3 genes is mutually exclusive, such
                that a single parasite expresses only one of the two genes at a
                time. Here we investigated the properties and mechanisms of
                clag3 mutual exclusion using transgenic parasite lines with
                extra copies of clag3 promoters located either in stable
                episomes or integrated in the parasite genome. We found that the
                additional clag3 promoters in these transgenic lines are
                silenced by default, but under strong selective pressure
                parasites with more than one clag3 promoter simultaneously
                active are observed, demonstrating that clag3 mutual exclusion
                is strongly favored but it is not strict. We show that silencing
                of clag3 genes is associated with the repressive histone mark
                H3K9me3 even in parasites with unusual clag3 expression
                patterns, and we provide direct evidence for heterochromatin
                spreading in P. falciparum. We also found that expression of a
                neighbor ncRNA correlates with clag3.1 expression. Altogether,
                our results reveal a scenario where fitness costs and
                non-deterministic molecular processes that favor mutual
                exclusion shape the expression patterns of this important gene
                family.

# metadata.dc.relation.isformatof[].value
Reproducció del document publicat a:
                http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkv730

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Articles publicats en revistes (ISGlobal)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Deciphering the principles that govern mutually exclusive
                expression of Plasmodium falciparum clag3 genes