ArticleNucleic acids research2014
DNA secondary structures are associated with recombination in major Plasmodium falciparum variable surface antigen gene families.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- upsML: A high-accuracy machine learning classifier for predicting Plasmodium falciparum var gene upstream groups.PloS one · 2026Article
- Plasmodium falciparum expresses fewer var genes at lower levels during asymptomatic dry season infections than clinical malaria cases.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Article
- Mosaic and cocktail capsid-virus-like particle vaccines for induction of antibodies against the EPCR-binding CIDRα1 domain of PfEMP1.PloS one · 2024Article
- Molecular Characteristics and Potent Immunomodulatory Activity of Fasciola hepatica Cystatin.The Korean journal of parasitology · 2022Article
- Detection of simple and complex de novo mutations with multiple reference sequences.Genome research · 2020Article
- Rapid activation of distinct members of multigene families in Plasmodium spp.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Rapid antigen diversification through mitotic recombination in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.PLoS biology · 2019Article
- Complex DNA structures trigger copy number variation across the Plasmodium falciparum genome.Nucleic acids research · 2019Article
- Evolutionary analysis of the most polymorphic gene family inWellcome open research · 2019Article
- Immunization with Recombinant Plasmodium falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein 1 CIDRα1 Domains Induces Domain Subtype Inhibitory Antibodies.Infection and immunity · 2018Article
- Whole genome sequencing and microsatellite analysis of the Plasmodium falciparum E5 NF54 strain show that the var, rifin and stevor gene families follow Mendelian inheritance.Malaria journal · 2018Article
- RecQ helicases in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum affect genome stability, gene expression patterns and DNA replication dynamics.PLoS genetics · 2018Article
- Independent regulation of Plasmodium falciparum rif gene promoters.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Direct whole-genome sequencing of Plasmodium falciparum specimens from dried erythrocyte spots.Malaria journal · 2018Article
- Plasmodium falciparum EPCR-binding PfEMP1 expression increases with malaria disease severity and is elevated in retinopathy negative cerebral malaria.BMC medicine · 2017Article
- Article
- DNA secondary structure formation by DNA shuffling of the conserved domains of the Cry protein ofBMC biophysics · 2017Article
- Recombination events among virulence genes in malaria parasites are associated with G-quadruplex-forming DNA motifs.BMC genomics · 2016Article
- Plasmodium falciparum var genes expressed in children with severe malaria encode CIDRα1 domains.EMBO molecular medicine · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Many bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens undergo antigenic variation to counter host immune defense mechanisms. In Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of human malaria parasites, switching of var gene expression results in alternating expression of the adhesion proteins of the Plasmodium falciparum-erythrocyte membrane protein 1 class on the infected erythrocyte surface. Recombination clearly generates var diversity, but the nature and control of the genetic exchanges involved remain unclear. By experimental and bioinformatic identification of recombination events and genome-wide recombination hotspots in var genes, we show that during the parasite's sexual stages, ectopic recombination between isogenous var paralogs occurs near low folding free energy DNA 50-mers and that these sequences are heavily concentrated at the boundaries of regions encoding individual Plasmodium falciparum-erythrocyte membrane protein 1 structural domains. The recombinogenic potential of these 50-mers is not parasite-specific because these sequences also induce recombination when transferred to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetic cross data suggest that DNA secondary structures (DSS) act as inducers of recombination during DNA replication in P. falciparum sexual stages, and that these DSS-regulated genetic exchanges generate functional and diverse P. falciparum adhesion antigens. DSS-induced recombination may represent a common mechanism for optimizing the evolvability of virulence gene families in pathogens.
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