Epigenetics in Human Malaria Parasites (Elena Gómez-Diaz)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Elena Gomez-Diaz from the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine López-Neyra at the Spanish National Research Council. She share with us her work on the Epigenetics in Human Malaria Parasites.

Elena Gómez-Díaz and her team are focusing on understanding how epigenetic processes are implicated in host-parasite interactions by regulating gene expression in the model of malaria. The team has started to investigate and uncover layers of chromatin regulation that control developmental transitions in Plasmodium falciparum, especially in the parts of the life cycle that take place in the mosquito. Furthermore, the lab has investigated epigenetic changes that are present in malaria-infected Anopheles mosquitos, this led to the identification of cis-regulatory elements and enhancer-promoter networks in response to infection.

References

• Gómez-Díaz E, Rivero A, Chandre F, Corces VG. Insights into the epigenomic landscape of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Front Genet. 2014 Aug 15;5:277. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00277. PMID: 25177345; PMCID: PMC4133732.

• Gómez-Díaz, E., Yerbanga, R., Lefèvre, T. et al. Epigenetic regulation of Plasmodium falciparum clonally variant gene expression during development in Anopheles gambiae. Sci Rep 7, 40655 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40655

• José Luis Ruiz, Juan J Tena, Cristina Bancells, Alfred Cortés, José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta, Elena Gómez-Díaz, Characterization of the accessible genome in the human malaria parasite. Plasmodium falciparum, Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 46, Issue 18, 12 October 2018, Pages 9414–9431, https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky643

• Women in Malaria 2021: A Conference Premier. (2021). Trends in Parasitology, 37(7), 573–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2021.04.001

  • Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/womeninmalaria

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