Malaria parasites are characterized by a complex life cycle that is accompanied by dynamic gene expression patterns. The factors and mechanisms that regulate gene expression in these parasites have been searched for even before the advent of next generation sequencing technologies. Functional genomics approaches have substantially boosted this area of research and have yielded significant insights into the interplay between epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Recently, considerable progress has been made in identifying sequence-specific transcription factors and DNA-encoded regulatory elements. Here, we review the insights obtained from these efforts including the characterization of core promoters, the involvement of sequence-specific transcription factors in life cycle progression and the mapping of gene regulatory elements. Furthermore, we discuss recent developments in the field of functional genomics and how they might contribute to further characterization of this complex gene regulatory network.

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功能基因组学告诉我们有关疟原虫转录调控的知识。

疟疾寄生虫的特点是复杂的生命周期，并伴有动态的基因表达模式。甚至在下一代测序技术出现之前，人们就已经在寻找调节这些寄生虫基因表达的因素和机制。功能基因组学方法极大地促进了这一领域的研究，并对表观遗传、转录和转录后机制之间的相互作用产生了重要的见解。最近，在识别序列特异性转录因子和 DNA 编码调控元件方面取得了相当大的进展。在这里，我们回顾了从这些努力中获得的见解，包括核心启动子的表征、序列特异性转录因子在生命周期进展中的参与以及基因调控元件的定位。此外，我们讨论了功能基因组学领域的最新进展，以及它们如何有助于进一步表征这一复杂的基因调控网络。