Nanopore sequencing maps DNA replication timing in malaria parasite for first time

Researchers have used Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing with DNAscent to produce the first replication timing programme for Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest human malaria parasite. Earlier methods such as Repli-seq could not resolve this programme because of the parasite's unusual cell cycle. The study, posted as a preprint, shows that the timing of replication across the genome is linked to elevated rates of DNA breakage and replication fork stalling, and predicts that most of these stalls are transient. The work opens a way to study genome maintenance in a parasite whose replication biology has been hard to probe, though the findings await peer review and experimental confirmation of the predicted fork dynamics.

Written by a model from the reports · updated 4 hours ago