Conditional expression of PfAP2-G for controlled massive sexual conversion in Plasmodium falciparum. [ChIP-Seq]

Malaria transmission requires the conversion of some asexual parasites into sexual forms termed gametocytes. The initial stages of sexual development, including sexually-committed schizonts and sexual rings, remain poorly characterized, in part because only a subset of parasites undergo sexual development and they are morphologically identical to their asexual counterparts. Here we present a system based on conditional expression of PfAP2-G, the master regulator of sexual conversion, for controlled sexual induction. Induction resulted in ~90% sexual conversion, which enables the characterization of early sexual stages without further purification. Transcriptomic analysis identified the alterations that follow pfap2-g activation, including identification of genes that are down-regulated. We also show that the inducible system enables the characterization of committed stages at the phenotypic level. Altogether, the inducible lines will facilitate the study of the initial stages of sexual development, which is important for the development of new strategies to stop malaria transmission. Overall design: Samples from E5ind and 1.2Bind in non-inducing conditions; together with E5ind+Rapa_prol and 1.2Bind+Rapa_prol cultures, were processed to perform a ChIP-Seq experiment against H3K9me3.