Post-translational modifications (PTMs) allow proteins to regulate their structure, localisation and function in response to cell intrinsic and environmental signals. The diversity and number of modifications on proteins increase the complexity of cellular proteomes by orders of magnitude. Several proteomic and molecular studies have revealed an abundance of PTMs in malaria parasite proteome, where mediators of PTMs play crucial roles in parasite pathogenesis and transmission. In this article, we discuss recent findings in asexual stages of ten diverse PTMs and investigate whether these proteins are expressed in sexual stages. We discovered 25–50 % of proteins exhibiting post-translational modifications in asexual stages are also expressed in sexual stage gametocytes. Moreover we analyse the function of the modified proteins shared with the gametocyte proteome and try to encourage the scientific community to investigate the roles of diverse PTMs beyond phosphorylation in sexual stages which could not only reveal unique aspects of parasite biology, but also uncover new avenues for transmission blocking.

翻译后修饰 (PTM) 允许蛋白质调节其结构、定位和功能，以响应细胞内在和环境信号。蛋白质修饰的多样性和数量使细胞蛋白质组的复杂性增加了几个数量级。几项蛋白质组学和分子研究表明，疟原虫蛋白质组中存在大量 PTM，其中 PTM 的介质在寄生虫发病机制和传播中起关键作用。在本文中，我们讨论了十种不同 PTM 无性阶段的最新发现，并调查这些蛋白质是否在有性阶段表达。我们发现 25-50% 在无性阶段表现出翻译后修饰的蛋白质也在有性阶段配子体中表达。