Differences in nucleosome organization over episomally located plasmids coincides with aberrant promoter activity in P. falciparum.

Here we investigated whether the Plasmodium falciparum GBP130 promoter maintains its developmental activity during the intraerythrocytic cycle when located on an episomal plasmid introduced using transient transfection. Comparing its activity with that of the endogenous chromosomally located GBP130 promoter indicates that the episomally located GBP130 promoter looses its developmental restriction, being rendered constitutively active. Loss of developmental restriction coincides with the absence of phased nucleosomal arrays over the episome. These data suggest that epigenetic factors may play a role in developmentally regulated gene expression in P. falciparum.