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Nature 439, 926-927 (23 February 2006) | doi:10.1038/439926b; Published online 22 February 2006

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    • Wayne State University
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    • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
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Parasitology: Switching like for like

Piet Borst1 & Paul-André Genest1

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To remain hidden from its host's immune system, the malaria parasite must vary the proteins on the surface of the infected cell. The genes encoding these proteins are very similar, so how does the parasite express just one at a time?

Selecting one gene for activation out of many closely similar ones is tricky. Mammals address this problem when they switch on just one odorant receptor gene in each olfactory neuron, choosing between a thousand receptor genes.

  1. Piet Borst and Paul-André Genest are in the Division of Molecular Biology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Piet Borst is also in the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam.
    Email: p.borst@nki.nl