title: Placing the Plasmodium falciparum epigenome on the map.
abstract: It is becoming increasingly evident that epigenetic mechanisms that act on and regulate chromatin structure play a key role in the development, adaptation, and survival of the malaria parasite within its human host. The study of epigenetics in Plasmodium falciparum started to flourish in recent years due to improvement of genomic technologies. Here we summarize the knowledge gained from genome-wide localization profiling of different epigenetic features, and discuss hypotheses emerging from the analysis of these 'descriptive' epigenetic maps. Furthermore, we highlight key questions to be answered, and provide a glimpse of developments required to gain true mechanistic understanding and to lift this maturing field to the next level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Radboud University, Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands. W.Hoeijmakers@ncmls.ru.nl
authors.forename: Wieteke A M
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Hoeijmakers
authors.forename: Hendrik G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Stunnenberg
authors.forename: Richárd
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bártfai
mesh_terms: D057890:Epigenomics; D018503:Genome, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000469:parasitology*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics*