m5C methyltransferase NSUN3 regulates variant gene expression and development in blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum [RIP-seq]

C5 methylation of cytosine is a relatively abundant post-transcriptional modification in eukaryotes, and the NSUN family has been identified as an important executor of m5C modification. Currently, little is known about this family in Plasmodium spp. Therefore, we constructed a pfnsun3 gene knockdown strain and the knockdown efficiency was confirmed through growth curves and western blot experiments. The target genes of PfNSUN3 was obtained by RNA immunoprecipitation and high-throughput transcriptome sequencing experiments. Our data reveal that pfnsun3 is an indispensable post-transcriptional RNA modification in regulating variant gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum. Overall design: To explore the target genes of PfNSUN3 protein, we collected ring stage sample of pfnsun3-ty1-glmS strain to identify its direct-binding RNAs by RIP-seq experiments.