ABSTRACT
Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum and other malaria parasites requires differentiation from asexual blood stages into male and female gametocytes, a non-replicative sexual stage necessary for transmission to the mosquito vector. This particular transition relies on chromatin reorganization mechanisms that coordinate the silencing and activation of a large number of stage specific genes. However, the transcriptional and chromatin regulators that mediate the changes during sexual differentiation remain largely unknown. Here, we identify the previously uncharacterized Homeodomain Protein 1 (HDP1) as an essential regulator of this process. HDP1 binds DNA in a sequence-specific manner and is tightly associated with chromatin in early gametocytes and required for the critical expansion of the inner membrane complex. Loss of HDP1 leads to deregulation of heterochromatin-associated gene silencing, decreased telomere clustering and increased chromatin accessibility. We propose that HDP1 plays a crucial role in restructuring the parasite’s chromatin landscape during early sexual differentiation.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.