Abstract
Many pathogens undergo antigenic variation to evade and counter host immune defense systems. Plasmodium falciparum is the causative agent of malaria in humans and has developed antigenic strategies for host evasion. One of these strategies is to manipulate var gene expression, which results in alternating expression of the erythrocyte membrane protein 1 class on the infected erythrocyte surface. Recombination has been shown to generate diversity in the var gene, but the control and nature of the genetic changes remain opaque. A bioinformatic and experimental approach was used to identify recombination events in var genes. We confirm that during a parasite's sexual stages, recombination between isogenous var paralogs occurs near low-folding free energy DNA 50-mers. These sequences are concentrated at the boundaries of regions encoding individual erythrocyte membrane protein 1 structural domains. This poster aims to illustrate the nature and the location of the structural variants of the var gene in Plasmodium falciparum.