Functional characterisation and identification of a core interactome of Plasmodium regulatory protein Alba4

PfAlba4 is ubiquitously expressed and predominantly cytosolic in Plasmodium falciparum, and its knock-sideways loss disrupts blood stage development while binding 692 transcripts.

• Why it matters: Limited canonical transcriptional regulation in Plasmodium suggests post-transcriptional control by RNA-binding proteins is critical, but PfAlba4’s interactome and RNA targets were unclear.
• What they did: The study created an endogenously tagged PfAlba4 line, used knock-sideways conditional loss, mapped a 67-protein enriched interaction network by proteomics, and performed RIP-seq to identify 692 PfAlba4-associated transcripts.
• The result: RIP-seq showed a pyrimidine-rich motif enriched in 3' UTRs, and integrating proteomics with RIP-seq in late blood stage parasites linked PfAlba4 to RNA processing and regulatory pathways.

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