Chromatin structure and var2csa: a tango in regulation of var gene expression in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum?

The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum utilizes an array of epigenetic mechanisms to regulate the mutually exclusive expression and antigenic variation of virulence genes (var). An unusual highly conserved var gene called var2csa has been implicated in coordinating transcriptional switching of var genes that allows the parasite to evade the host immune response, but how this gene functions within the regulatory hierarchy is unknown. We performed RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and Hi-C experiments on wild type and var2csa knockout cell lines to identify epigenetic changes stemming from the deletion of var2csa and how these changes affect var gene expression.