The varieties of gene amplification, diversification and hypervariability in the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract

The human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is able to evade host cell-mediated and humoral immunity to maintain both persistent and repeated infections. Immune evasion is in part due to a robust repertoire of proteins which participate in host-parasite interactions but also exhibit profound antigenic diversity, and in some instances switches in gene expression. The antigenic diversity occurs both at the parasite level within families of amplified proteins, and within populations of parasites in which mechanisms of recombination and gene conversion conspire to create a broad plasticity in the antigenic exposure to the host. This review will introduce the spectrum of amplified protein families in P. falciparum and focus on three sub-telomeric encoded families, RIFIN, STEVOR and Pfmc-2TM which exhibit hypervariability with respect to their antigenic diversity.