| 2004 |
PfGCN5 encodes a histone acetyltransferase with conserved HAT activity that preferentially acetylates histone H3, specifically at K8 and K14, as determined using recombinant PfGCN5 and substrate-specific antibodies. The HAT domain of PfGCN5 can partially complement a yeast GCN5 deletion mutant, and a chimera containing the PfGCN5 HAT domain fused to the remainder of yeast GCN5 fully rescues the yGCN5 deletion. |
In vitro HAT assay with free core histones; substrate-specific antibody detection; yeast complementation assay |
Eukaryotic cell |
High |
15075257
|
| 2004 |
PfGCN5 physically interacts with PfADA2 (the P. falciparum ADA2 homologue), as shown by yeast two-hybrid and in vitro binding assays, suggesting they associate in a complex in vivo. |
Yeast two-hybrid assay; in vitro binding assay |
Eukaryotic cell |
Medium |
15075257
|
| 2004 |
Anti-GCN5 antibodies immunoprecipitate a ~200 kDa protein from parasite lysate with HAT activity similar to recombinant GCN5, and this HAT activity is also immunoprecipitated by anti-PfADA2 antibodies, demonstrating that PfADA2 is associated with PfGCN5 in vivo. |
Co-immunoprecipitation with HAT activity assay |
Gene |
Medium |
15246536
|
| 2006 |
Recombinant PfGCN5 efficiently acetylates recombinant PfH3 at K9 and K14, despite divergence in the PfH3 N-terminus from mammalian homologues, and native PfGCN5 does likewise, establishing H3K9 and H3K14 as the primary in vitro substrates. |
In vitro HAT assay with recombinant substrates; acetylation-specific antibody detection; native PfGCN5 from parasite extracts |
Gene |
High |
16410041
|
| 2006 |
Curcumin inhibits the HAT activity of recombinant PfGCN5 in vitro and reduces nuclear HAT activity in parasite culture, causing hypoacetylation of histone H3 at K9 and K14 but not H4 at K5, K8, K12, or K16, indicating substrate-specific inhibition of PfGCN5. |
In vitro HAT assay with recombinant PfGCN5; nuclear HAT activity assay from parasite extracts; acetylation-specific antibodies |
Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy |
High |
17145789
|
| 2007 |
Genome-wide ChIP-chip analysis shows that PfGCN5 is distributed across the P. falciparum genome with a chromosomal distribution similar to H3K9ac but distinct from H3K9me3. PfGCN5 occupancy is enriched at promoter regions of actively expressed genes in a stage-specific manner, and treatment with a PfGCN5 inhibitor reduces promoter H3K9ac and gene expression, establishing that PfGCN5 mediates H3K9ac at promoters to activate transcription. |
Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) coupled with DNA microarray (ChIP-chip); real-time PCR; HAT inhibitor treatment |
Eukaryotic cell |
High |
17449656
|
| 2008 |
Anacardic acid reversibly and non-competitively inhibits HAT activity of recombinant PfGCN5 and to a lesser extent PfGCN5 in parasite nuclear extracts, without affecting histone deacetylase activity. This causes hypoacetylation of H3K9 and H3K14 (but not H4K5/K8/K12/K16) and ChIP shows reduced acetylation near promoters of downregulated genes. |
In vitro HAT assay; nuclear extract HAT assay; ChIP with real-time PCR; acetylation-specific antibodies; microarray |
Eukaryotic cell |
High |
18487348
|
| 2008 |
PfGCN5 is recruited to the enhancer region of the pf1-cys-prx gene specifically during trophozoite/schizont stages, as shown by ChIP, correlating with elevated histone acetylation and stage-specific transcriptional activity. |
Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP); reporter assay; electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA); DNase I footprinting |
Molecular and biochemical parasitology |
Medium |
18692528
|
| 2019 |
Quantitative proteomic interaction studies identify two distinct GCN5/ADA2 complexes in P. falciparum, revealing the composition of PfGCN5-containing epigenetic complexes and their interactions with other epigenetic regulatory complexes. |
Histone peptide pull-downs; quantitative proteomics (mass spectrometry); tagging and interaction proteomics |
Nucleic acids research |
Medium |
31728527
|
| 2020 |
PfGCN5 undergoes novel proteolytic processing by a cysteine protease-like enzyme that is essential for its activity in vivo. The processing occurs near the digestive vacuole following trafficking through the ER-Golgi secretory pathway before PfGCN5 reaches the nucleus. Blocking processing reduces PfGCN5 occupancy at gene promoters and lowers H3K9ac at those promoters. |
Immunofluorescence; immuno-electron microscopy; cysteine protease inhibitor treatment; ChIP; fractionation |
Journal of cell science |
Medium |
31862795
|
| 2021 |
PfGCN5 forms a divergent HAT complex in P. falciparum that includes two plant homeodomain (PHD) proteins (PfPHD1 and PfPHD2) and an AP2-domain transcription factor (PfAP2-LT). Deletion of the bromodomain of PfGCN5 or the PHD domain of PfPHD1 reduces merozoite invasion of erythrocytes, elevates sexual conversion, decreases H3K9 acetylation and H3K4 trimethylation, and disrupts global transcription including mutually exclusive var gene expression. |
CRISPR-based domain deletion; phenotypic assays (invasion, sexual conversion); RNA-seq; ChIP-seq; immunoprecipitation/proteomics |
PLoS pathogens |
High |
34403450
|
| 2021 |
ChIP-seq shows PfGCN5 binds to stress-responsive genes (including those involved in artemisinin resistance such as BiP and TRiC chaperone) in a poised state under normal conditions, and genome-wide PfGCN5 binding sites increase upon artemisinin exposure. Inhibition of PfGCN5 increases sensitivity of artemisinin-resistant parasites to artemisinin. |
ChIP-seq; pharmacological inhibition of PfGCN5; growth assay/drug sensitivity assay |
Scientific reports |
Medium |
33441725
|
| 2020 |
PfGCN5 interacts with and acetylates PfGAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) in vitro. Immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry identifies various metabolic enzymes as PfGCN5 interacting partners, suggesting a role beyond histone acetylation. |
Immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry; in vitro acetylation assay |
Journal of biosciences |
Medium |
31965989
|
| 2016 |
A co-crystal structure of the bromodomain inhibitor L-45 (L-Moses) with the PfGCN5 bromodomain was solved, rationalizing the high selectivity of the compound for PCAF and GCN5 bromodomains. |
X-ray co-crystallography; biophysical characterization |
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) |
Medium |
27966810
|
| 2017 |
PfGCN5 bromodomain directly binds diacetylated histone H2A.Z (at K4 and K11) with a Kd of ~650 µM, as determined by NMR-based biophysical assays. |
Protein-observed 19F NMR (PrOF NMR); Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill NMR; photo-cross-linking |
Biochemistry |
Low |
28771339
|
| 2023 |
Conditional knockdown of PfGCN5 to ~50% sensitizes P. falciparum to heat shock, glucose starvation, and dihydroartemisinin. RNA-seq identifies ~300-400 PfGCN5-dependent genes involved in stress responses, including ART-resistance-related genes K13 and coronin. KD or inhibition of PfGCN5 sensitizes ART-resistant parasites to DHA treatment. |
TetR-DOZI conditional knockdown; RNA-seq; ring-stage survival assay; pharmacological inhibition |
Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy |
High |
37702516
|
| 2024 |
Falcipain 3 (FP3), a food vacuolar cysteine protease, directly interacts with PfGCN5 as shown by co-immunoprecipitation and in vitro pull-down assay. Use of the cysteine protease inhibitor E64d blocks proteolytic processing of PfGCN5 and causes co-localization of PfGCN5 and FP3 around the food vacuole, identifying FP3 as the protease responsible for PfGCN5 processing. |
Co-immunoprecipitation followed by LC-MS/MS; in vitro pull-down assay; cysteine protease inhibitor treatment; confocal and electron microscopy |
Biotechnology and applied biochemistry |
Medium |
38924147
|
| 2025 |
PfGCN5 is essential for parasite survival in human blood and transmission to mosquitoes. Its bromodomain (BRD) is required at euchromatic gene promoters for proper expression and for acetylation of the variant histone PfH2B.Z. Loss of the BRD de-represses heterochromatic genes and increases acetylated PfH2B.Z in heterochromatin, indicating PfGCN5 maintains repressive heterochromatin structure. The BRD-binding compound L-45 phenocopies BRD deletion. |
Conditional genetic knockdown/deletion; ChIP-seq; histone modification profiling; drug treatment phenocopy; gametocyte/mosquito transmission assay |
Nucleic acids research |
High |
40156869
|
| 2025 |
PfGCN5 acetylates PfPGM1 (phosphoglycerate mutase 1) at K100, a residue critical for PfPGM1 catalytic activity, stabilizing the protein. Additionally, PfGCN5 occupies the PfPGM1 promoter in a stage-specific manner, and knockdown of PfGCN5 reduces PfPGM1 transcript levels, demonstrating dual regulation of a glycolytic enzyme at both the protein and transcriptional levels. |
In vitro acetylation assay; knockdown with cycloheximide treatment; ChIP; RT-PCR/transcriptomics |
The FEBS journal |
Medium |
40567037
|
| 2025 |
Conditional knockdown of PfGCN5 phenotypically recapitulates bromodomain deletion growth defects. CUT&Tag-seq shows PfGCN5 co-localizes with H3K9ac at gene promoters, and the H3K9ac peak intensity positively correlates with levels of gene expression. PfGCN5 chromatin positions overlap with DNA sequence motifs recognized by multiple AP2 transcription factors, indicating AP2-domain TFs recruit PfGCN5 to target promoters. PfGCN5 co-localizes with AP2-LT, confirming AP2-LT as a component of the PfGCN5 complex. |
TetR-DOZI conditional knockdown; CUT&Tag-seq; motif analysis; colocalization analysis |
Cells |
High |
40558503
|
| 2026 |
The poly-asparagine repeat-containing N-terminus of PfGCN5 associates with its C-terminal catalytic domain after proteolytic cleavage in the nucleus. Deletion of the poly-asparagine repeat destabilizes the N-terminal polypeptide, impairs parasite development and growth (especially under stress), and profoundly reduces acetylation of histones H3, H3.3, and H4, demonstrating that the poly-asparagine repeat contributes to PfGCN5 acetyltransferase activity in vivo. |
Genetic deletion; high-resolution mass spectrometry; western blotting; growth and stress assays |
Nature communications |
Medium |
42323337
|