The chromosomal organization of the Plasmodium falciparum var gene family is conserved

Abstract

The var gene family of Plasmodium falciparum encodes the protein PfEMP1 which is located on the surface of infected erythrocytes and is the receptor that mediates binding to ligands on endothelial cells. This family of proteins is responsible for antigenic variation and differences in binding phenotype to ligands such as CD36 and ICAM1. We have compared the organization of the var gene family in three in vitro cloned lines of P. falciparum and show that most var genes are located in the subtelomeric region of each chromosome closely linked to the repetitive sequence rep20. While most chromosomes possess var genes in the subtelomeric region, in each in vitro cloned line there are some chromos..