Depletion of PfAP2-MRP increases chromatin accessibility

The Plasmodium falciparum PfAP2-MRP protein is one of 8 ApiAP2 proteins that strongly associate with the parasite's heterochromatin regions. PfAP2-MRP associates with many heterochromatin associated genes that serve a role in antigenic variation. We explored the effects of pfap2-mrp deletion on chromatin structure by whole-genome chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) followed by deep sequencing of tagged and knockout strains at 16 and 40 h.p.i..