Alternative Splicing In Apicomplexan Parasites

Abstract

The project intends to provide a detailed picture of how alternative splicing is regulated in four biologically diverse apicomplexan parasites, and to explain why parasites need this molecular trick to survive. Alternative splicing is an important means by which organisms increase the diversity of proteins encoded by their genome. Although this mechanism is well studied in humans, little is known about the extent of this phenomenon in other organisms, nor how the process is regulated. The project plans to test if alternative splicing is required to transition between different life stages, just as alternative splicing is required for tissue differentiation in animals, and describe how altern..