02394nas a2200253   4500008004100000245009100041210006900132260000800201300001100209490000600220520153500226653001201761653004001773653002801813653002701841100001801868700002001886700001601906700002101922700002401943700002801967700002401995856012102019       2021                        eng d00aConserved RNA binding activity of phosphatidyl inositol 5-phosphate 4-kinase (PIP4K2A)0 aConserved RNA binding activity of phosphatidyl inositol 5phospha  cMAY  a6312810 v83 aPlasmodium falciparum is a causative agent for malaria and has a complex life cycle in human and mosquito hosts. During its life cycle, the malarial parasite Plasmodium goes through different asexual and sexual stages, in humans and mosquitoes. Expression of stage-specific proteins is important for successful completion of its life cycle and requires tight gene regulation. In the case of Plasmodium, due to relative paucity of the transcription factors, it is postulated that posttranscriptional regulation plays an important role in stage-specific gene expression. Translation repression of specific set of mRNA has been reported in gametocyte stages of the parasite. A conserved element present in the 3 ` UTR of some of these transcripts was identified. Phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate 4-kinase (PIP4K2A) was identified as the protein that associates with these RNA. We now show that the RNA binding activity of PIP4K2A is independent of its kinase activity. We also observe that PIP4K2A is imported into the parasite from the host on Plasmodium berghei and Toxoplasma gondii. The RNA binding activity of PIP4K2A seems to be conserved across species from Drosophila and C. elegans to humans, suggesting that the RNA binding activity of PIP4K may be important, and there may be host transcripts that may be regulated by PIP4K2A. These results identify a novel RNA binding role for PIP4K2A that may not only play a role in Plasmodium propagation but may also function in regulating gene expression in multicellular organisms.10amalaria10aposttranscriptional gene regulation10aRNA-protein interaction10atranslation regulation1 aBehari, Jatin1 aBorkar, Pranita1 aVindu, Arya1 aDandewad, Vishal1 aUpadrasta, Sindhuri1 aShanmugam, Dhanasekaran1 aSeshadri, Vasudevan  uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/conserved-rna-binding-activity-phosphatidyl-inositol-5-phosphate-4-kinase-pip4k2a