from Zbynek Bozdech and Peter R. Preiser writing in Malaria Parasites: Comparative Genomics, Evolution and Molecular Biology:
Over the last decade, functional genomics of Plasmodium species uncovered many new insights into gene and protein expression that characterizes both the growth and multiplication of malaria parasites in their natural hosts. Genome- and proteome-wide technologies provided new insights into the physiology of all major developmental stages as well as many regulatory mechanisms that control progression of the complex Plasmodium lifecycle. It is now clear that the morphological transition between the developmental stages is linked to broad changes in gene expression that are regulated by several types of regulatory mechanisms including specific transcription factors and chromatin remodeling machinery as well as global DNA/RNA metabolic processes. At the protein level, translation rate, protein turnover and posttranslational modifications appeared to be important contributing factors to the lifecycle regulation. In addition, it is clear that Plasmodium parasites are able to transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally respond to some external stimuli. Both the broad regulation of gene/protein expression during the life cycle and the transcriptional/translational plasticity likely reflect a robust adaptation of malaria parasites to their natural hosts and thus their ability to spread amongst many populations throughput the world. Better understanding for these dynamic properties of the Plasmodium genome will provide the tools for the design and development of new malaria control strategies.
Further reading: Malaria Parasites: Comparative Genomics, Evolution and Molecular Biology