Abstract
Apicomplexan parasites are protozoan organisms that are characterised by complex life cycles and they include medically important species, such as the malaria parasite Plasmodium and the causative agents of toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii) and cryptosporidiosis (Cryptosporidium spp.). Apicomplexan parasites can infect one or more hosts, in which they differentiate into several morphologically and metabolically distinct life cycle stages. These developmental transitions rely on changes in gene expression. In the last few years, the important roles of different members of the ApiAP2 transcription factor family in regulating life cycle transitions and other aspects of parasite biology have become apparent. Here, we review recent progress in our understanding of the different members of the ApiAP2 transcription factor family in apicomplexan parasites.
Highlights
Apicomplexan parasites, like Plasmodium spp., Toxoplasma gondii, or Cryptosporidium spp. cause devastating diseases in humans and their eradication is still far away
The apicomplexan parasites have complex life cycles, which are marked by several differentiation steps that are associated with significant switches in the transcriptome [6,7,8,9,10]
In Plasmodium and Toxoplasma, epigenetic regulation via histone modifications and histone variants has been implicated in the control of gene expression, and, generally, specific transcription factors (TFs) are of major importance in the developmental regulation of transcription in eukaryotes [12]
Summary
Apicomplexan parasites, like Plasmodium spp., Toxoplasma gondii, or Cryptosporidium spp. cause devastating diseases in humans and their eradication is still far away. C-terminus) domains in pink, AT hooks in black, zinc finger in blue, Acyl-CoA-N-acyltransferase in light blue, pentapeptide-repeat-like domains in yellow. The E160 and W172 residues are maintained as polar amino acids with aromatic residues, indicating that they are less important for differential sequence specificities This shows that there is a higher variability of binding and recognition motifs for the ApiAP2 TFs, which may represent specific adaptation to the higher AT content of the apicomplexan parasites [21]. The crystal structure of PfAP2-Sp/Exp (PF3D7_1466400) in complex with DNA revealed binding of the double stranded DNA in the major groove of the ApiAP2 factor and the dimerisation of two ApiAP2 domains by domain-swapping of the α-helices, so that the α-helix from one ApiAP2 aligns with the β-strands of the other ApiAP2 [31]. The AT-hook contributes to DNA binding but in a non-sequence-specific way [31,32]
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