About this Research Topic
Intracellular parasites have evolved sophisticated strategies to manipulate their host cells in order to survive and thrive. A wide range of protozoan parasites illustrate the fascinating mechanisms that exploit epigenetic mechanisms to regulate gene expression of both the parasite and host genomes. Examples of parasites that have attracted much attention, include Plasmodium and Leishmania that cause life-threatening human diseases. As well as other related parasites such as Toxoplasma, Babesia, Theileria, Crypstosporidium andTrypanosoma, which can affect both humans and animals. Many studies in recent years have converged on understanding the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in parasites and the strategies that they employ to manipulate their hosts. These studies have highlighted both parasite-specific mechanisms and shared pathways. These advances raise the promise of targeting parasite or host epigenetic machineries to treat disease.
This Research Topic will focus on these exciting recent advances and how these epigenetic events contribute to the dynamics of host-parasite interactions. Areas to cover may include:
• Host Epigenetics: reprogramming of host genome functions by intracellular parasites;
• Parasite Epigenetics: the epigenome landscape and parasite epigenetic machineries;
• Modulation of host-immune responses by the epigenetic changes upon parasite infection;
• Developing drugs to target the epi-interaction between host and parasites;
• Unique features of parasite genomes and epigenetics machineries;
• Shared features of parasite-host interactions;
• New technologies to explore the epigenetics of host-parasite interactions;
• Evolutionary insights comparing strategies employed by different parasites.
Keywords: host epigenetics, parasite epigenetics, parasite-host interactions
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.