The transcriptional regulator HDP1 controls expansion of the inner membrane complex during early sexual differentiation of malaria parasites.

Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum and other malaria parasites requires their differentiation from asexual blood stages into gametocytes, the non-replicative sexual stage necessary to infect the mosquito vector. This transition involves changes in gene expression and chromatin reorganization that result in the activation and silencing of stage-specific genes. However, the genomes of malaria parasites have been noted for their limited number of transcriptional and chromatin regulators, and the molecular mediators of these changes remain largely unknown.