The clever strategies used by intracellular parasites to hijack host gene expression

M Villares, J Berthelet, JB Weitzman - Seminars in Immunopathology, 2020 - Springer
Intracellular pathogens need to develop sophisticated mechanisms to survive and thrive in
the hostile environment within host cells. Unicellular, eukaryotic parasites from the …

A MORC-driven transcriptional switch controls Toxoplasma developmental trajectories and sexual commitment

DC Farhat, C Swale, C Dard, D Cannella, P Ortet… - Nature …, 2020 - nature.com
Toxoplasma gondii has a complex life cycle that is typified by asexual development that
takes place in vertebrates, and sexual reproduction, which occurs exclusively in felids and is …

Mechanisms of adaptation and evolution in Toxoplasma gondii

SO Angel, L Vanagas, AM Alonso - Molecular and Biochemical …, 2024 - Elsevier
Toxoplasma has high host flexibility, infecting all nucleated cells of mammals and birds. This
implies that during its infective process the parasite must constantly adapt to different …

Changes in genome organization of parasite-specific gene families during the Plasmodium transmission stages

EM Bunnik, KB Cook, N Varoquaux… - Nature …, 2018 - nature.com
The development of malaria parasites throughout their various life cycle stages is
coordinated by changes in gene expression. We previously showed that the three …

Epigenetic reader complexes of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

WAM Hoeijmakers, J Miao, S Schmidt… - Nucleic acids …, 2019 - academic.oup.com
Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms are central to the development and survival of all
eukaryotic organisms. These mechanisms critically depend on the marking of chromatin …

Deciphering histone H4 lysine acetylation and methylation via sortase-mediated semisynthesis

Y Xiao, K Zou, J Yang, M Wu - Cell Reports Physical Science, 2023 - cell.com
The post-translational modifications of histone H4 play significant roles in regulation of
epigenetic status. Reconstituted nucleosomes that mimic the native chromatin are valuable …

An apicomplexan bromodomain protein, TgBDP1, associates with diverse epigenetic factors to regulate essential transcriptional processes in Toxoplasma gondii

K Fleck, S McNutt, F Chu, V Jeffers - Mbio, 2023 - Am Soc Microbiol
The protozoan pathogen Toxoplasma gondii relies on tight regulation of gene expression to
invade and establish infection in its host. The divergent gene regulatory mechanisms of …

Histone variant H2B. Z acetylation is necessary for maintenance of Toxoplasma gondii biological fitness

L Vanagas, D Muñoz, C Cristaldi, A Ganuza… - … et Biophysica Acta (BBA …, 2023 - Elsevier
Through regulation of DNA packaging, histone proteins are fundamental to a wide array of
biological processes. A variety of post-translational modifications (PTMs), including …

Genome-wide localization of histone variants in Toxoplasma gondii implicates variant exchange in stage-specific gene expression

SC Nardelli, NC Silmon de Monerri, L Vanagas… - BMC genomics, 2022 - Springer
Background Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that differentiates from acute
tachyzoite stages to latent bradyzoite forms in response to environmental cues that modify …

Single cell expression and chromatin accessibility of the Toxoplasma gondii lytic cycle identifies AP2XII-8 as an essential ribosome regulon driver

J Lou, Y Rezvani, A Arriojas, Y Wu, N Shankar… - Nature …, 2024 - nature.com
Sequential lytic cycles driven by cascading transcriptional waves underlie pathogenesis in
the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite's unique division by internal …