Discovery of Telomere Repeat-binding Zinc finger protein in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

ChIP-seq experiments were performed for the putative Telomere Repeat-binding Zinc finger protein (PfTRZ) in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum strain 3D7. The gene encoding this factor (PF3D7_1209300) was endogenously tagged with either a GFP- or a 3xHA-tag and these transgenic parasite lines were used in ChIP-sequencing experiments. Sequencing of the ChIP and input libraries showed enrichment of PfTRZ at all telomere-repeat containing chromosome ends (reference genome Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 from PlasmoDB version 6.1) as well as in all upsB var promoters.In addition,PfTRZ was enriched at seven additional, intra-chromosomal sites and called in the PfTRZ-HA ChIP-seq only. Overall design: Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 parasites were generated with -GFP or -3xHA C-terminal tagged TRZ (PF3D7_1209300). Nuclei were isolated from formaldehyde cross-linked schizont-stage transgenic parasites and used to prepare chromatin. Chromatin immunoprecipitations were performed using mouse anti-GFP (Roche Diagnostics, #11814460001) or rat anti-HA 3F10 (Roche Diagnostics, #12158167001). Sequencing libraries were prepared according to a Plasmodium-optimized library preparation procedure including KAPA polymerase-mediated PCR amplification.