| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,810,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,110,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The malarial gametocyte, the gamete precursor, is the parasite stage obligatory for malarial transmission to the mosquito vector. We report that an AP2-family transcription factor, AP2-F, is responsible for female-specific gene regulation. AP2-F expression in Plasmodium berghei was observed exclusively in female gametocytes. AP2-F disruption resulted in the arrest of female maturation, but did not affect the development of males. ChIP-seq analysis showed that AP2-FG directly regulates over 750 genes. Its targets include genes for female gametocyte-specific functions, such as gametogenesis, fertilization, and zygote development. AP2-F binding to target gene promoters was associated with a 10-bp sequence motif. These results indicate that AP2-F plays a role in the differentiation of early gametocytes into mature females by governing a female-specific gene expression repertoire.
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