{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T02:44:56Z","timestamp":1793328296195,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,7]],"date-time":"2024-10-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1728259200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004735","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004735","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Plasmodium falciparum<\/jats:italic> is the most damaging malaria pathogen and brings a heavy burden to global health. Host switching and morphological changes in <jats:italic>P. falciparum<\/jats:italic> are dependent on an effective gene expression regulatory system. C5 methylation of cytosines is a common RNA modification in eukaryotes, and the NSUN family are essential m<jats:sup>5<\/jats:sup>C modification executors. Currently, little is known about this family in <jats:italic>Plasmodium<\/jats:italic> spp. In this study, we focus on exploring the function of <jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> protein.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>An efficient CRISPR\/Cas9 gene editing technique was applied to construct the <jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> knockdown strain. The knockdown efficiency was confirmed by growth curves and western blot experiments. The knockdown transcriptome data was acquired to find differentially expressed genes, and target genes of <jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> protein were identified by RNA immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing experiments.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The efficiency of <jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> protein down-regulated was about 34%. RNA-seq data revealed that differentially expressed genes were mainly down-regulated. And there were 224, 278, 556 genes that were down-regulated with more than 2-fold changes and p-adj&amp;lt;0.05 at ring, trophozoite and schizont stages, respectively. <jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> protein was significantly enriched on 154 target genes, including 28S ribosomal RNA and <jats:italic>pfap2-g5<\/jats:italic> transcription factor.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>PfNSUN1<\/jats:italic> is a crucial RNA post-transcriptional modification protein in <jats:italic>P. falciparum<\/jats:italic>. It plays a pivotal role in regulating gene expression and parasite growth by targeting 28S ribosomal RNA and <jats:italic>pfap2-g5<\/jats:italic> transcription factor.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2024.1474229","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,7]],"date-time":"2024-10-07T04:10:20Z","timestamp":1728274220000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["The RNA m5C methyltransferase NSUN1 modulates human malaria gene expression during intraerythrocytic development"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Ruoyu","family":"Tang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanting","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"BinBin","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qunfeng","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinyu","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zuping","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Li","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaomin","family":"Shang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"847","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajhg.2012.03.021","article-title":"Mutations in NSUN2 cause autosomal-recessive intellectual disability","volume":"90","author":"Abbasi-Moheb","year":"2012","journal-title":"Am. 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