M6A Modifications are Associated with Differential Primed End Processing in Malaria Pathogen Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum is an obligate human parasite of the phylum apicomplexa and is the causative agent of the most lethal form of human malaria. While post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms are critical for expression of stage-specific virulence factor proteins, the mechanisms underlying these processes are yet to be uncovered in apicomplexan parasites. Most eukaryotic mRNA precursors (pre-mRNAs) must undergo extensive processing, including cleavage and polyadenylation at the 3 primed end. Particularly, 3 primed end processing promotes mRNA stability, transport and translation. In this study, we provide a comprehensive landscape of polyadenylation sites in the intraerythrocytic RBC stages in P. falciparum using two new and complementary high-throughput RNA 3 primed end mapping approaches.