Trying to understand the biology of the malaria parasite Pasmodium, IIGB researchers led by associate professor Karine Le Roch have discovered low levels of DNA methylation in Plasmodium’s genome that may be critical to the survival of the parasite. A paper about the findings of Le Roch and her team, titled “Genome-wide Mapping of the DNA Methylation in the Human Malaria Parasite,” appears in the December 2013 issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Plasmodium parasites sickened more than 200 million people globally in 2010 and killed about 660,000. Worse, the parasite is showing resistance to artemisinin, the most effective drug for treating infected people.

DNA methylation is a biochemical process involving the modification of DNA that plays an important role in development and disease. DNA methylation is so essential for normal development that abnormal DNA methylation patterns have been linked with many diseases, including cancers and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers are keen to find a new drug against malaria, since mutations in the parasite have made it resistant to the most effective drugs on the market. “We need a new drug every five years,” Le Roch said, “because the parasites always find a way to develop resistance against a drug.” Le Roch’s ultimate goal is to map the regulatory networks controlling the entire life cycle of the Plasmodium parasite. She reasons that researchers really need to understand the entire biology of the parasite and how it replicates.

Le Roch was joined in the study by IIGB’s Nadia Ponts, Lijuan Fu, Elena Y. Harris, Jing Zhang, Duk-Won D. Chung, Michael Cervantes, Jacques Prudhomme, Evelien M. Bunnik, Elisandra M. Rodrigues, Stefano Lonardi, Glenn R. Hicks and Yinsheng Wang; and Vessela Atanasova-Penichon and Enric Zehraoui at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), France.