title: The sound of sexual commitment breaks the silencing of malaria parasites.
abstract: A fundamental binary decision is made by malaria parasites at every asexual cycle in the blood between further proliferation and differentiation into gametocytes, the mosquito transmissible stages. Recent studies on Plasmodium epigenetic regulation, transcriptional control and genetic basis of gametocyte production are merging today to unveil players and propose molecular mechanisms of this key branch point in the malaria parasite life cycle.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie ed Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, viale Regina Elena n.299, 00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: alano@iss.it.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000235:genetics; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins
keywords: AP2 transcription factors; developmental commitment; epigenetic silencing; gametocyte differentiation; malaria parasite transmission; parasite antigenic variation