The human malaria parasite undergoes a complex life cycle in two hosts, mammalian and mosquito, where it is constantly subjected to environmental changes in nutrients. Epigenetic mechanisms govern transcriptional switches and are essential for parasite persistence and proliferation. Parasites infecting red blood cells are auxotrophic for several nutrients, and mounting evidence suggests that various metabolites act as direct substrates for epigenetic modifications, with their abundance directly relating to changes in parasite gene expression. Here, we review the latest understanding of metabolic changes that alter the histone code resulting in changes to transcriptional programmes in malaria parasites.

中文翻译：

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渴望控制：恶性疟原虫中染色质的代谢信号传导

人类疟疾寄生虫在哺乳动物和蚊子这两个宿主体内经历了复杂的生命周期，并且不断受到营养物质环境变化的影响。表观遗传机制控制转录开关，对于寄生虫的持续存在和增殖至关重要。感染红细胞的寄生虫对多种营养素存在营养缺陷型，越来越多的证据表明，各种代谢物可作为表观遗传修饰的直接底物，其丰度与寄生虫基因表达的变化直接相关。在这里，我们回顾了对代谢变化的最新理解，这些变化改变了组蛋白密码，从而导致疟疾寄生虫转录程序的变化。