Stage-specific promoter activity from stably maintained episomes in Plasmodium falciparum.

Genomic DNA is organised at its simplest level within phased arrays of nucleosomes, a structure key to the correct transcriptional regulation of the encoded genes. Here we studied chromatin formation on DNA transfected into Plasmodium falciparum either as an episomal plasmid or following integration by homologous recombination. We show that stably maintained and replicated plasmid assembles phased arrays of nucleosomes and that a reporter gene is transcribed in an appropriate temporal manner. These data provide a key observation for the future investigation of promoter structure and function with transfected DNA in Plasmodium spp.