Abstract:
Histone modification profiles are predictive of gene expression and most of the knowledge gained is acquired through studies done in higher eukaryotes. However, genome-wide studies involving Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria, have been rather few, at lower resolution (mostly using ChIP-on-chip), and covering limited number of histone modifications. In our recent study [1], we have performed extensive genome-wide analyses of multiple histone modifications including the active (H3K4me2, H3K4me3, H3K9ac, H3K14ac, H3K27ac and H4ac), inactive (H3K9me3 and H3K27me3), elongation (H3K79me3) and regulatory element (H3K4me1) in a stage-specific manner. Furthermore, we used a ligation-based method suitable for sequencing homopolymeric stretches as seen in P. falciparum for next-generation sequencing library amplification [2], enabling highly quantitative analysis of the extremely AT-rich P. falciparum genome. Our recently published study suggests that transcription regulation by virtue of poised chromatin and differential histone modifications is unique to P. falciparum [1]. Here we describe the experiments, quality controls and chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing data analysis of our associated study published in Epigenetics and Chromatin [1]. Stage-specific ChIP-sequencing data for histone modifications is submitted to Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under the accession number GSE63369.