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Review
. 2021 Dec;23(12):e13387.
doi: 10.1111/cmi.13387. Epub 2021 Sep 2.

Zinc finger proteins of Plasmodium falciparum

Che Julius Ngwa  1 , Afia Farrukh  1 , Gabriele Pradel  1
Affiliations
Review

Zinc finger proteins of Plasmodium falciparum

Che Julius Ngwa et al. Cell Microbiol. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are a large diverse family of proteins with one or more zinc finger domains in which zinc is important in stabilising the domain. ZFPs can interact with DNA, RNA, lipids or even other proteins and therefore contribute to diverse cellular processes including transcriptional regulation, ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, mRNA decay and stability. In this review, we provide the first comprehensive classification of ZFPs of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and provide a state of knowledge on the main ZFPs in the parasite, which include the C2H2, CCCH, RING finger and the PHD finger proteins. TAKE AWAYS: The Plasmodium falciparum genome encodes 170 putative Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs). The C2H2, CCCH, RING finger and PHD finger subfamilies of ZFPs are most represented. Known ZFP functions include the regulation of mRNA metabolism and proteostasis.

Keywords: Plasmodium; epigenetic regulator; gene expression; malaria; transcription factor; zinc finger protein.

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References

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