Rapid antigen diversification through mitotic recombination in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum
Fig 5
Sequential recombination events initiated by telomere healing that lead to the creation of chimeric var genes.
(A) Diagram of the “left” end of chromosome 12 after induction of a DSB between var gene PF3D7_1200600 and acs7. The annotation numbers for var genes are shown. TAREs are shown as an open box, and telomere repeats are shown as hashed lines. Note that new telomere repeats are now found directly downstream of acs7, creating a new end of chromosome 12 and liberating the remainder of the chromosome as a free DNA fragment. (B) The free DNA fragment derived from the end of chromosome 12 is shown aligned with the end of chromosome 6. Exonuclease resection of the free DNA end is shown by a Pac-Man symbol. Recombination between var genes PF3D7_1200400 and PF3D7_0632500 is shown with an X. Two products of recombination are shown, the new end of chromosome 6 including the chimeric var gene created by the recombination (right) and the new free DNA fragment (left). C) The free DNA fragment derived from the end of chromosome 6 is shown aligned with the end of chromosome 13. Exonuclease resection of the free DNA end is shown by a Pac-Man symbol. Recombination between var genes PF3D7_0632800 and PF3D7_1300100 is shown with an X. Two products of recombination are shown, the new end of chromosome 13 including the chimeric var gene created by the recombination (right) and the new free DNA fragment (left). acs7, acyl-CoA synthetase 7; Chrom, chromosome; FIKK, phenylalanine-isoleucine-lysine-lysine-motif–containing kinase; TARE, telomere-associated repeat gene.