Protein modification characteristics of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the infected erythrocytes.

Malaria elimination is still pending on the development of novel tools that rely on a deep understanding of parasite biology. Proteins of all living cells undergo a myriad number of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) that are critical to multifarious life processes. An extensive proteome-wide dissection revealed a fine PTM map of most proteins in both Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of severe malaria, and the infected red blood cells. More than two-thirds of proteins of the parasite and its host cell underwent extensive and dynamic modification throughout the erythrocytic developmental stage. PTMs critically modulate the virulence factors involved in the host-parasite interaction and pathogenesis. Furthermore, P. falciparum stabilized the supporting proteins of erythrocyte origin by selective de-modification. Collectively, our multiple omic analyses, apart from having furthered a deep understanding of the systems biology of P. falciparum and malaria pathogenesis, provide a valuable resource for mining new antimalarial targets.


Trypsin digestion
For trypsin digestion, the protein solution was reduced with 5 mM dithiothreitol for 30 min at 56°C and alkylated with 11 mM iodoacetamide for 15 min at room temperature. The urea concentration of the sample was diluted to less than 2M by adding 100 mM TEAB. Finally, trypsin was added at a 1:50 trypsin-to-protein mass ratio for the first step overnight digestion, and a second 4 h digestion with additional trypsin was performed with a 1:100 trypsin-to-protein mass ratio.

HPLC fractionation
The trypsin-digested peptides were fractionated by high pH reverse-phase HPLC using an Agilent 300 Extend C18 column (5-μm particles, 4.6 mm ID, 250 mm length). Briefly, peptides were first separated with a gradient of 8%-32% acetonitrile (pH 9.0) over 60 min into 60 fractions. Then, the peptides were combined into 18 fractions and dried by vacuum centrifuging.

Bio-material-based PTM enrichment (for phosphorylation)
Peptide mixtures were first incubated with an immobilized metal ion affinity chromatographic (IMAC) microsphere suspension with vibration. The IMAC microspheres with enriched phosphopeptides were collected by centrifugation, and the supernatant was removed. To remove nonspecifically adsorbed peptides, the IMAC microspheres were washed with 50% ACN/6% TFA and 30% ACN/0.1% TFA sequentially. To elute the enriched phosphopeptides from the IMAC microspheres, elution buffer containing 10% NH4OH was added. The supernatant containing phosphopeptides was collected and lyophilized for LC-MS/MS analysis.

HILIC-based PTM enrichment (for N-glycosylation)
The peptides were dissolved in 40 μL of enrichment buffer (80% acetonitrile/1% trifluoroacetic acid), and the supernatant was transferred to a hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) microcolumn. Enrichment was completed by centrifugation at 4,000 g for approximately 15 min. The hydrophilic microcolumn was washed three times with enrichment buffer. The glycopeptide was then eluted with 10% acetonitrile, and the eluate was collected and vacuum dried. After drying, the eluate was resuspended in 50 μL of 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate buffer dissolved in hydrogen peroxide solution. Following this, 2 μL of PNGase F glycosidase was added, and the eluate was cleaved overnight at 37°C. Finally, the salt was removed according to the C18 ZipTips instructions.

LC-MS/MS analysis for proteome
The tryptic peptides were dissolved in 0.1% formic acid (solvent A) and directly loaded onto a home-made reversed-phase analytical column. The gradient of solvent B (0.1% formic acid in 90% acetonitrile) comprised an increase from 9% to 24% over by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 7 38 min, 24% to 35% in 14 min, and climbing to 80% in 3 min, then holding at 80% for the last 3 min, all at a constant flow rate of 700 nL/min on an EASY-nLC 1000 UPLC system. The peptides were subjected to NSI source followed by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in a Q ExactiveTM Plus (Thermo) coupled online to the UPLC. The electrospray voltage applied was 2.0 kV. The m/z scan range was 350 to 1, 800 for full scans, and intact peptides were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 70,000. Peptides were then selected for MS/MS using an NCE setting of 30, and the fragments were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 17,500. The signal threshold was set to 10,000 ions/s, and the maximum injection time was set to 200 ms.
The dynamic exclusion time of the tandem mass spectrometry scan was set to 30 s to avoid repeated scans of the parent ions. There are corresponding Excel tables for each peptide sequence of three biological replicates (Supplemental Dataset S1).

LC-MS/MS analysis for phosphorylation
The peptides were subjected to NSI source followed by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in a Q ExactiveTM Plus (Thermo) coupled online to the UPLC (Supplemental Dataset S2). The electrospray voltage applied was 2.0 kV. The m/z scan range was 350 to 1,600 for the full scan, and intact peptides were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 60,000. Peptides were then selected for MS/MS using an NCE setting of 28, and the fragments were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 15,000. A data-dependent procedure that alternated between one MS scan followed by 20 MS/MS scans with 15.0s dynamic exclusion was employed. The fixed first mass was set as 100 m/z. Automatic gain control (AGC) was set at 1E5. The signal threshold was set to 33,000 ions/s, and the maximum injection time was set to 60 ms. The peptides were subjected to NSI source followed by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in a Q ExactiveTM Plus (Thermo) coupled online to the UPLC (Supplemental Datasets S3-S6). The electrospray voltage applied was 2.0 kV. The m/z scan range was 350 to 1,600 for the full scan, and intact peptides were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 60,000. Peptides were then selected for MS/MS using an NCE setting of 28, and the fragments were detected in the Orbitrap at a resolution of 30,000. A data-dependent procedure that alternated between one MS scan followed by 20 MS/MS scans with 15.0 s dynamic exclusion was employed. Automatic gain control (AGC) was set at 1E5. The fixed first mass was set as 100 m/z. The signal threshold was set to 20,000 ions/s, and the maximum injection time was set to 200 ms.
The dynamic exclusion time of the tandem mass spectrometry scan was set to 30 s to avoid repeated scans of the parent ions.

LC-MS/MS analysis for N-glycosylation
The tryptic peptides were dissolved in 0.1% formic acid (solvent A) and directly loaded onto a home-made reversed-phase analytical column (15 cm length, 75 μm i.d.). The gradient of solvent B (0.1% formic acid in 90% acetonitrile) comprised an increase from 8% to 23% over 38 min, 23% to 35% in 14 min, climbing to 80% in 3 min, then holding at 80% for the last 3 min, all at a constant flow rate of 450 nL/min on an EASY-nLC 1000 UPLC system. Corresponding Excel tables for each peptide sequences of three biological replicates were provided (Supplemental Dataset S7).

Database search
The resulting MS/MS data were processed using the MaxQuant search engine matching. The common contamination databases were used to eliminate the effects of contaminating proteins in the identification data. Trypsin/P was specified as a cleavage enzyme, allowing up to four missing cleavages for acylation and ubiquitination and two missing cleavages for phosphorylation and glycosylation. The minimum length of the peptide was set to seven amino acid residues, and the maximum number of peptide modifications was set to five. The mass tolerance for precursor ions was set as 20 ppm in the First search and 5 ppm in the Main search, and the mass tolerance for fragment ions was set as 0.02 Da. Carbamidomethyl on cysteine was specified as a fixed modification. Oxidation of methionine and acetylation of the N-terminals of proteins were specified as variable modifications. In addition, variable modifications were specified for phosphorylation (of serine, threonine, and tyrosine), acetylation, crotonylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation and ubiquitination (with TMT tag on lysine), Deamidation 18O (N), and Deamidation (NQ). FDR for protein identification and PSM identification were adjusted to less than 1%, and the quantitative method was set to TMT-10plex. Unique and razor peptides were selected for quantification, and the minimum ratio count was set to 2.
The minimum score for modifying peptides was kept at 40, and the localization probability was greater than 0.75.

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The sizes of most peptides ranged from 7 to 20 amino acids, consistent with the general rule of methods based on trypsin enzymatic and HCD fragmentation. Peptides with less than five amino acids produced too few fragment ions and therefore did not produce efficient sequence identification. Peptides with more than 20 amino acids were not suitable for fragmentation of HCD due to the high mass and charge number.
In other words, the distribution of peptide lengths identified by mass spectrometry met quality control requirements.
For biologically replicated and technically replicated samples, we examined whether the quantitative results of biological replicates or technical replicates were statistically consistent. Heatmaps were generated using Pearson's correlation coefficients between all samples. This coefficient is a measure of the degree of linear correlation between the two sets of data: a Pearson coefficient close to -1 indicates a negative correlation, and a value close to 1 represents a positive correlation, while values near 0 indicate no correlation. In this experiment, Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated for each sample of each modification. The results showed that the repeatability of the three biological replicates was good. In short, the accuracy of the test instrument was normal; the peptide quality control was suitable; the biological repeatability was good, and the data could be used for subsequent analysis.

Quantification of proteins or modification sites
Relative abundance of proteins or modification sites was determined by the ion intensity ratio of the TMT reporter from each PSM in MaxQuant. TMT ratios of proteins or PTM sites were calculated by the median of all of the PSM ratios, excluding the PSMs lacking TMT labels.

Generation of Circos plots
The Circos plots were generated using Circos (http://www.circos.ca) software. The panels were made in the program R using the custom package imsbInfer, currently on According to the initial order, the accumulated value of the amino acid length is displayed on the outer circle, so that the corresponding protein and its modification can be located, and thus the outermost circle represents "cumulative protein length of identified proteins."

Significantly changed proteins or modification sites
The average ratio of proteins or modification sites at each time point during the IDC was used to describe the abundance, including the peak and the valley. The false discovery rate (FDR) was calculated based on an ANOVA proposed by Benjamini and Hochberg. An FDR of less than 1% was considered to be a significant difference.

Dynamic cluster analysis
In order to perform cluster analyses of the modification sites with significantly changed abundance during the IDC, we used a clustering method based on the Mfuzz package version 2.36.0 (https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/Mfuzz.html). This method allows multi-assignment of quantified proteins or modification sites in different clusters. The number of clusters was set to six, and the fuzzification parameter m was by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from set to 2. To identify the main functions of proteins in each cluster, we performed GO enrichment and pathway enrichment followed by adjustment of P values using R's p. adjust function.

Subcellular localization prediction
The subcellular localization of proteins was predicted based on the amino acid sequence of the proteins modified by PTMs through the online tool WOLF PSORT (wolfpsort.org).

Dynamic analysis of PTM abundance in subcellular localization
To explore the relationship between the PTM abundance and subcellular localization during the IDC, the enrichment score of subcellular localization was developed from the scoring tactics of dynamic changes of PTM abundance. Single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was used to calculate normalized enrichment scores (NES) of relative abundance of PTMs at each time point during the IDC.

Functional annotation and enrichment
Gene Ontology (GO) annotation of proteins was derived from the UniProt-GOA database (www. http://www.ebi.ac.uk/GOA/). The protein accession was first converted to the GO ID, and then the protein function was annotated with Uniprot-GOA. If the proteins were not annotated by the Uniprot-GOA database, the annotation was produced by the InterProScan software based on the sequence alignment of proteins. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database was used to annotate the pathways of proteins. The protein description from the KEGG pathway was annotated by the online service tools KAAS and KEGG mapper in the KEGG database. The functional enrichment was analyzed using Fisher's exact test.

Protein-protein interaction network
The interaction among protein sets was searched using the STRING database version by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 13 11.0 based on the protein accession or amino acid sequences of proteins. To ensure the credibility of the interaction, only trial-verified relationships were selected, so "Text mining" was removed in the settings. In String, a metric called "confidence score" is used to define interaction confidence. We required all relationships to have a high confidence score (>0.9 for nucleic acid-related proteins, > 0.8 for disease pathwayrelated proteins). The interaction network was constructed based on the modification sites through Cytoscape.

Construction of the 3D structure
The 3D structures of the target proteins were downloaded from the PDB database based on the amino acid sequences. The omnidirectional videos were generated by ChimeraX software, and the modification sites were marked.

The overall PTMomics of P. falciparum and infected erythrocytes
Plasmodium falciparumand RBC-derived proteins were purified from highly synchronized cultures every 8 h post-invasion (p.i.), and the proteomic dynamics and turnover of six PTMs of each protein were thoroughly analyzed (Figs. S1 and S2; Supplemental Data S8). For P. falciparum, we identified 1,401 proteins and 1,518 modification sites that were matched to 848 proteins in the six PTMomics (phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, Nglycosylation, and ubiquitination) in various degrees across the erythrocytic stage ( Fig. 1A and B; Supplemental Data S9, S10). For the host RBCs, 5,034 modification sites matched to 1,924 proteins were identified ( Fig. 1C; Supplemental Data S9, S10).
Phosphorylation was the most predominant modification type in the P. falciparum proteome, whereas in the RBC proteins, apart from phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation were prominent ( Fig. 1A and C). The variation in modification abundance was considered to be significant at the 1% FDR Functional characterization based on Gene Ontology (GO) terms (P < 0.05 for P. falciparum and P < 0.00001 for RBCs) and KEGG pathways (P < 0.05 for P. falciparum and P < 0.01 for RBCs) ( Fig. S3; Supplemental Data S11) illustrated that the acetylated proteins in P. falciparum were predominantly located in the nucleus and ribosome, with functions such as DNA binding, protein heterodimerization activity, and organelle organization (Fig. S3A), in line with earlier findings in both P. falciparum and other organisms (8,(20)(21)(22). Lysine crotonylation and 2hydroxyisobutyrylation occurred on proteins mainly located in the cytosol of both parasites and RBCs, mediating diverse metabolic pathways ( Fig. S3A and B), similar to our previous findings in Toxoplasma gondii (23). For the RBC proteins, acylation including acetylation, crotonylation, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation mainly occurred in proteins associated with sugar metabolism, such as in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and pentose phosphate pathways, and oxidative stress, proteasome, de novo protein folding, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 signaling pathway, and cadherin binding.
Proteins modified by 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation also participated in spectrin binding and disulfide oxidoreductase activity (Fig. S3B). In P. falciparum, phosphorylation mainly occurred on proteins involved in RNA transport, spliceosomes, mismatch repair, ribosomes, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, the phosphatidylinositol signaling system, metabolic regulation, and response to drugs ( Fig. S3A). In the RBC host cells, phosphorylated proteins were mainly involved in kinase activity, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, pentose phosphate pathways, the citrate cycle, cadherin, actin-binding, and other processes (Fig. S3B). Ubiquitination is mostly known as a signal for proteasomal degradation, primarily participating in metabolic process and proteolysis (24), immune suppression, and host cell reprogramming (13). We found that in P. falciparum, proteins associated with RNA transport, translation, substance metabolism, cellular biosynthesis, and response to oxidative stress (Fig. S3A) were ubiquitinated, and in RBCs, ubiquitination mainly occurred in proteins associated with catabolic and antigenic processing, but by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from ubiquitination of the erythrocytic structural proteins was significantly less than that in the normal RBCs (Fig. S3B). Proteins with N-glycosylation were mainly involved in cellular localization and protein binding in P. falciparum (Fig. S3A), but those events were much less frequent compared to other modifications. N-glycosylated proteins were involved in diverse functions in the infected RBCs such as complement reaction, coagulation cascades, immune and defense responses, heparin-binding, extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction, cholesterol metabolism, and many disease-related pathways.

Dynamic protein modifications in P. falciparum during the IDC
After invasion into an erythrocyte, the parasite needs to express novel proteins for energy production and creation of an environment for development and proliferation (25). Here, at the first step, we created an expression pattern clustering of modification sites of the parasite-derived proteins that showed significant changes over time (FDR < 0.01), and their functional associations with intra-erythrocytic development were analyzed in depth.
The overall modification abundance of P. falciparum proteins in Cluster 1 included 47 modification sites associated with parasite maturation (Fig. 2). The proteins in this cluster were primarily involved in nucleotide binding, gene transcription, RNA transport, and mRNA surveillance; these were mainly modified by phosphorylation, acetylation, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, and they were likely to promote gene activation during merozoite development and trophozoite maturation.
For example, the transcriptional coactivator ADA2, an evolutionarily conserved component of histone acetyltransferase (HAT) complexes involved in chromatin remodeling and transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes (26), was acetylated at three lysine sites, with the highest abundance at 8 h; the acetylation extent decreased with the development of the parasite (Supplemental Data S12). The RNA helicase UAP56, an important factor in mRNA exportation and pre-mRNA splicing (27), was phosphorylated at S240 and showed high abundance at 8, 16, and 48 h (Supplemental by guest on December 12, 2020 Data S12). Furthermore, the modifications of histone H2A (H2A-K19 ac ), H3 (H3-S29 ph ), (H3.v-S29 ph ), splicing factor (Q8IKE9-S244 ph ), translation initiation factor (EIF3D-S542 ph ), nucleic acid-binding protein (Q8I2Y5-S82 ph , Q8IIT2-K199 cr ), nucleoside transporter (Q8IDM6-S16 ph ), and several ribosomal proteins (Q8ID50-K29 hib and Q8ID50-S57 ph , C0H4A6-K83 hib , and Q8ID32-K5 ac of ribosome biogenesis protein MRT4, Q8I655-S50 ph of ribosome-associated membrane protein RAMP4) were predominant in the early stages (Supplemental Data S12, and to be further analyzed in a later section). This indicated that in the early stage of P. falciparum development, not only phosphorylation and acetylation (28) but also 2hydroxyisobutyrylation may exert similar functions in gene activation, as was also observed in a recent study of T. gondii (23). In addition, the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family members were mainly modified by 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation apart from phosphorylation and crotonylation in Cluster 1 (Supplemental Data S12); they are known to be important in protein homoeostasis and protein trafficking across the PV as chaperones and immunogens (29,30).
The overall abundance of 21 modification sites of P. falciparum proteins in Cluster 2 showed a downward trend during the parasite development, similar to that of Cluster 1 (Fig. 2). The proteins in this cluster, which were predominantly phosphorylated, were components of the nucleosome and Maurer's cleft, nucleic acid binding, GTPase activity, nitrogen compound metabolic processes, translational elongation, and host-parasite interactions. Mature-parasite-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (MESA), an erythrocyte cytoskeletal protein 4.1 binding protein (31), was phosphorylated at S355 with high abundance at 16 and 24 h (Supplemental Data S12). Similarly, the lysine-rich membrane-associated PHISTb (LyMP), an RBC cytoskeletal-binding protein that adheres to proteins expressed on vascular endothelial cells resulting in sequestration (32), was also phosphorylated at S310 with high abundance (Supplemental Data S12). ETRAMP 10.2, which participates in interactions with RBC membrane protein (33), was highly phosphorylated at S136 at the same time points as MESA and PHISTb (Supplemental Data S12). In addition, by guest on December 12, 2020 extensive modification, including phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, 2hydroxyisobutyrylation, and ubiquitination of elongation factor 1α (EF-1α, PF3D7_1357000) associated with mRNA translation (34) was observed (Supplemental Data S10). Furthermore, the translation elongation factor 2 (eEF2), responsible for the GTP-dependent translocation of the ribosome along mRNA and essential for protein synthesis (35) was modified by 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation at K302, with the highest abundance at 16 h. The three RNA-binding proteins Q8IJX8-S3, Q8IJZ3-S745, and Q8I2Y5-S24 were all phosphorylated with high abundance at 16 and 24 h (Supplemental Data S12). Therefore, the functions of PTMs in proteins of Cluster 2 were mainly associated with translation regulation and parasite-host interaction.
Unlike Clusters 1 and 2, the overall modification abundance in proteins of Cluster 3 remained at a high level during the mature stage (24, 32, and 40 h) of the parasite.
These proteins are predominantly involved in cell adhesion and pathogenesis and were mainly phosphorylated (Fig. 2). Cytoadherence-linked asexual protein 3.1 (CLAG 3.1), a protein that targets the rhoptry of P. falciparum (36), was phosphorylated at S1382 with high abundance at 24 and 32 h (Supplemental Data S12). The P. falciparum protein GBP-130 (glycophorin-binding protein) was phosphorylated on T257 with high abundance at 24 and 32 h. Antigen 332 (Pf332), the largest known P. falciparum protein, is transported into the host RBC cytoplasm and is involved in adhesion, development, and cytoskeletal interaction (37); the protein was phosphorylated at S1379. The phosphorylation of T122 of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) remained at high levels at 24, 32, and 40 h, a period of protein generation, accumulation, and translocation. Furthermore, the merozoite surface protein MSA180, an unknown-function protein in P. falciparum, was phosphorylated at T966 with high abundance at the same period of time (Supplemental Data S12).
The overall PTM abundance of P. falciparum proteins in Cluster 4 with 38 members increased gradually from 8 to 40 h, then decreased afterward (Fig. 2). The proteins in this cluster contained components of rhoptry, apical complex, histone binding, protein-DNA complex assembly, protein processing and export, purine nucleoside diphosphate metabolic process, glycolysis, and gluconeogenesis. RAMA (Rhoptry-associated membrane antigen), which is synthesized in early trophozoites and is associated with both rhoptry biogenesis and host cell invasion (38), was phosphorylated at S417, with the highest abundance at 40 h. The P. falciparum rhoptry protein RhopH3, playing essential roles in host cell invasion and nutrient uptake (39), was phosphorylated at S804, and the modification abundance was at the highest level at 40 h. Variation in modifications of heat shock proteins was identified in Cluster 4, and the protein types were more diverse, including HSP70 with crotonylation at K82, K436, and K539, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation at K268. BIP (a molecule homologous to HSP70) was identified with crotonylation at K575 and HSP110c with phosphorylation at S589 (Supplemental Data S12). In addition, the modifications of sugar metabolic enzymes were identified in this cluster; those enzymes included phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGM1) with crotonylation at K106 and phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) with crotonylation at K143, and the modification abundance was high at 32 and 40 h (Supplemental Data S12). Previous studies have indicated that parasites at the trophozoite stage are metabolically most active, and during this phase there is an enrichment in transcription of genes encoding for amino acid, tRNA, ncRNA, DNA, pyruvate, glycolytic, and carbohydrate metabolic processes (40). Thus, PTMs likely facilitate the functions of these proteins.
The overall PTM abundance of P. falciparum proteins in Cluster 5 with 40 modification sites gradually increased from 8 to 32 h and tended to be stable from 32 to 48 h, the stage of generating multiple nuclei and forming progeny cells ready for egress (Fig. 2). The proteins in this cluster included components of nucleosome, pellicle, and inner membrane complex, and they mainly regulated histone binding, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, pyruvate metabolic process, actin-binding, and magnesium binding. Up to 13 histone modification sites were identified in Cluster 5, and all were acetylated with high abundance at the last three time points by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from (Supplemental Data S12).
Our data also supported the hypothesis that 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation promoted the enzymatic activity for glycolysis in P. falciparum, particularly at the schizont stage.
Remarkably, the components of the motor complex that drives entry of the invasive parasites were identified in Cluster 5, including glideosome-associated protein 45 (GAP45) with S103 ph , myosin-A (MyoA) with S19 ph , inner membrane complex protein IMC1c with two phosphorylation sites (S208 ph , S267 ph ), and IMC1g with one phosphorylation site (S191 ph ) (Supplemental Data S12). The high level of phosphorylation of these proteins at the last three time points indicates their essential roles in merozoite maturation.
The overall PTM abundance of P. falciparum proteins in Cluster 6 with 27 modification sites continued to increase over time, reaching the highest level at 48 h (Fig. 2). The proteins in this cluster included components of nucleosome and ribosome, and proteins regulating chromatin assembly, DNA activities, protein dimerization activity, cellular component organization, and biogenesis (Fig. 2). Except for histones and their variants, the rest of the proteins were modified by phosphorylation, demonstrating once again that phosphorylation might play a critical role in the regulation of gene transcription and translation (Supplemental Data S12).
Proteins of the motor complex also appeared in Cluster 6, including GAP40 with phosphorylation at S420, actin-1 (ACT1) with ubiquitination at K114 and K207, and IMC1c with phosphorylation at S146 and S266 (Supplemental Data S12). Except for ACT1 with the highest ubiquitination abundance from 40 h onwards, the rest of the by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 20 proteins of the motor complex showed the highest abundance of phosphorylation before egress (Supplemental Data S12). During merozoite invasion of erythrocytes, actin filaments lie beneath the inner side of the parasite plasma membrane (42). The interaction of the myosin with actin could then move the merozoite motor complex, with directionality provided by the orientation of the actin filaments. The role of ACT1 ubiquitination also clearly was not associated with proteolytic degradation. In contrast, both ubiquitination and phosphorylation may actively facilitate the assembly of the motor protein complex (43).

Spontaneous modification of host erythrocytic proteins after parasite invasion
Adaptation and evasion of immune clearance are critical for P. falciparum to develop and proliferate inside the blood circulation. After being invaded by the parasite, the host erythrocytes undergo profound structural and morphological changes such as increased rigidity and adhesiveness, leading to sequestration in the microvasculature that enables the parasite to avoid spleen filtration but also results in organ dysfunction and severe malaria (44). Some studies have found that parasites could alter the activity of host proteins by PTMs (45)(46)(47). Here, the spontaneous modifications of the RBC proteins with significant variation in abundance at six time points were deeply characterized, taking normal erythrocytes as controls (FDR < 0.01) ( Fig. 3; Supplemental Data S13).
The overall PTM abundance of the erythrocyte proteins in Cluster 1 with 75 modification sites showed a slow downward trend with the development of P. falciparum inside the RBC (Fig. 3). The proteins in this cluster were mainly involved in cell adhesion, hematopoiesis, secretory activity, exocytosis, complement, and coagulation cascades, and they were predominantly modified by N-glycosylation.
Many members of the cluster of differentiation (CD) antigen family, including CD35, CD44, CD47, CD55, CD58, CD59, and CD276, were extensively N-glycosylated with the development of the parasite inside the cell (Supplemental Data S13). CD44 and CD55, which are widely distributed on RBCs, are both necessary for P. falciparum invasion (48,49), and CD47 is linked to the membrane skeleton to enhance the deformability of red blood cells (50,51). The complement receptor 1 (CR1), also known as CD35, which plays an important role in promoting invasion and rosette formation and clearance of immune complexes in malaria (5,52), was glycosylated at four modification sites (N509, N578, N897, and N1908), with the lowest abundance at 48 h (Supplemental Data S13, and to be further analyzed later). Apart from CD35, CD44, and CD55, we found several merozoite receptors, including basigin, intercellular adhesion molecule 4 (ICAM4), and glycophorin-A (GPA), that were extensively N-glycosylated in the early stages of parasite development (Supplemental Data S13). Since P. falciparum lacks sufficient glycosylation enzymes, the modifications of erythrocytic proteins were likely triggered by signaling during parasite invasion (53).
The PTM abundance of erythrocyte proteins in Cluster 2 with 41 modification sites, in contrast to those of other proteins, remained significantly lower in the iRBC proteins than in normal RBCs (Fig. 3). The proteins in this cluster were mainly involved in ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, modification-dependent catabolic processes, protein binding, ferrous iron-binding, membrane organization, and protein polymerization, transport, and localization. The ubiquitination of neural precursor cells expressed developmentally downregulated protein 8 (NEDD8), which is conjugated to target proteins or lipids to regulate their activity, stability, subcellular localization, or macromolecular interactions (54), was much lower in iRBCs than in RBC controls (Supplemental Data S13). Previous studies have shown that ubiquitin chains linked to K48 led to degradation of the substrate via the 26S proteasome (13).
The de-ubiquitination and higher quantity of NEDD8 compared to that of normal RBCs post-parasite invasion indicated that NEDD8 and its partner proteins were necessary for cell stability and the intracellular development of the P. falciparum (Supplemental Data S10 and S13). Similarly, the autophagy-related protein 2 was dephosphorylated at S403 in iRBCs compared to that of RBCs (Supplemental Data by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 22 S13), suggesting that the autophagy signaling pathway mediated by phosphorylation was suppressed by P. falciparum after invasion. Furthermore, the ubiquitination of many erythrocyte cytoskeleton proteins such as spectrin, actin, cytoplasmic 2 (ACTG1), ankyrin-1 (ANK1), band 3 anion transport protein (SLC4A1), and dematin that contribute to the deformability and stability of erythrocytes was also lower in iRBCs than in RBCs (Supplemental Data S13). Meanwhile, the quantity of most erythrocyte cytoskeleton proteins remained higher in iRBCs than in RBCs (Supplemental Data S13), suggesting that the RBC proteins were selectively protected for the benefit of parasite development.
The PTM abundance of the infected erythrocyte proteins in Cluster 3 with 53 modification sites was significantly higher than that of the RBC control (Fig. 3). The prominent components in this cluster were proteolytic-related proteins of the ubiquitin-associated proteasome system (UPS), including ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1, ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2, ubiquitin-protein ligase E3, 26S proteasome and deubiquitinating enzymes, ubiquitin-60S ribosomal protein L40 (UBA52), proteasome activator complex subunit 1 (PSME1), proteasome subunit alpha type-1 (PSMA1), PSMA3, PSMA4, and PSMD2. These UPS-associated proteins were ubiquitinated and phosphorylated predominantly in the trophozoite stage (24, 32 h) except for RNF123, of which the modification was higher in the early ring stage (8 h), and the modification of PSMD2 in the schizont stage occurred (Supplemental Data S13). Thus, it is likely that the parasite promoted the enzymatic activity through ubiquitination and phosphorylation. In addition, antioxidant proteins with modifications were also detected in Cluster 3, including peroxiredoxin 6 (PRDX6) and thioredoxin-related transmembrane protein 1 (TMX1). Peroxiredoxin 6 was predominantly phosphorylated on T177 at 8 h. TMX1, which plays a major role in host defense under oxidative stress (55), was phosphorylated at S270, with the highest abundance at 8, 24, 32 h and the lowest abundance at 48 h (Supplemental Data S13).
The erythrocyte-derived proteins with 33 modification sites in Cluster 4 were mainly involved in ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, structural constituents of the by guest on December 12, 2020 cytoskeleton, actin filament capping and depolymerization, spectrin binding, heme binding, oxygen transport, signal transduction, transport, and localization (Fig. 3).
P. falciparum is unable to synthesize purines de novo and must obtain them from the host, and the human nucleoside transporter is one of the main mediators for P. falciparum in uptake of purines into iRBCs (56). Here, we found the ubiquitination abundance on K255 of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (SLC29A1) was low at 8, 16, and 48 h and high at 24 h (Supplemental Data S13). Furthermore, the two members of SLC in the efflux transport of organic anions, namely solute carrier family 2 (SLC2A1) and solute carrier family 43 member 3 (SLC43A3), were deubiquitinated post-invasion compared to the those of the RBC control (Supplemental Data S13). Consequently, the quantities of the two functional proteins reached the highest levels at 16 h and remained much higher than in the RBCs (Supplemental Data S13), possibly due to the need for nutrient uptake and transport into the parasite via erythrocytes, especially in the ring stage and early-trophozoite stage.
The overall PTM abundance of RBC proteins in Cluster 5 with 70 modification sites showed an upward trend from 8 h to 32 h (Fig. 3). The proteins in this cluster are by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from mainly involved in complement and coagulation cascades, immune and defense responses, the PPAR signaling pathway, protein activation cascade, proteolysis, and digestion and absorption of vitamins and fats. These proteins were mainly modified by N-glycosylation and crotonylation. For example, C3 with crotonylation at K1526, C4A with phosphorylation at S1177, C4B with glycosylation at N1328, C8A with glycosylation at N437, CFH with glycosylation at N1029 and N911, and C4b-binding protein beta chain (C4BPB) with glycosylation at N64 and N71 (Supplemental Data S13). The coagulation cascade, a complex process of proteolytic reactions, is closely associated with the complement system and depends on multiple coagulation factors (Factor I~XIII) (57). Here, glycosylation of prothrombin (N143) and coagulation factor XI (N126 and N450) were the highest at 48 h, similar to Cluster 1. We also found a CD antigen, CD14, that was glycosylated at N151 predominantly at 48 h (Supplemental Data S13). CD14 is a multifunctional receptor expressed on many cell types, and it has been shown to mediate the immune response, resulting in the activation of an inflammatory cascade (58).  (18,68,69). Unlike the majority of higher eukaryotes, P. falciparum chromatin is predominantly in a euchromatic state with only a few heterochromatic islands marked by trimethylation of the ninth lysine (K) of histone 3 (H3K9 me3 ) (18,70,71). Euchromatic upstream regulatory regions of most genes are typically associated with the presence of the histone variants H2A.z and H2Bv, H3K9 ac , and H3K4 me3 (28). Acetylation of H3K9 at promoter regions correlates with the gene transcriptional status, whereas H3K4 me3 appears to promote stage-specific regulation of gene expression (72)(73)(74).
Overall, the abundance of most modification sites of histones and histone variants was at high levels at the last three time points (32,40, and 48 h) (Fig. 4B), probably because the nucleus began to divide from about 32 h, resulting in the increasing of chromosomal activity.
Accumulating evidence suggests that the chromatin of Plasmodium falciparum is highly organized, and this structure provides an epigenetic mechanism for transcriptional regulation (75). Here we found that the transcription-associated proteins were mainly modified by phosphorylation, with lesser amounts of acetylation and ubiquitination (Fig. 5). The parasite-specific transcription factor PfAP2-I (PF3D7_1007700), a potential new antimalarial therapeutic target, is responsible for by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from regulating the expression of genes involved in RBC invasion (76). Two phosphorylation sites were identified in this protein, PfAP2-I-S913 ph with high abundance at 8 and 48 h, and PfAP2-I-T942 ph with high abundance at the mature trophozoite stage (Supplemental Data S10 and S15); the turnover of phosphorylation sites thus might control the timing of the regulatory function of the transcription factor. The translation initiation factors, such as eIF2A, EIF3A, EIF3C, EIF3D, EIF3I, eIF4A, EIF4A3, EIF5, and EIF3M, were mainly phosphorylated, whereas eIF4A and EIF4A3 were also ubiquitinated, and EIF3M was 2-hydroxyisobutyrylated (Fig. 5, Supplemental Data S10). Some of the modifications occurred in the ring stage, for example, EIF3C-S560 Ph , EIF3C-S564 Ph , EIF3D-S542 Ph , eIF4A-T129 Ph , and -K39 Ub , and some occurred in the late trophozoites and schizont stages, such as eIF2A-S1024 Ph , eIF2A-S1440 Ph , and eIF4A-K137 Ub (Supplemental Data S10 and S15). Of the three members of the eIF2α kinase family (PfeIK1, eIK2, and PfPK4), PfeIK1 regulates nutritional stress response during asexual growth of P. falciparum; eIK2 plays a major role in maintaining translational silencing in sporozoites; and activation of PfPK4 leads to the arrest of global protein synthesis not only during ontogeny of daughter merozoites but also in mature gametocytes (22). We identified phosphorylation at S2345 of PfPK4, and the modification abundance reached high levels at 8, 40, and 48 h (Supplemental Data S10). In addition, the modification types of the elongation factors and the ribosomal proteins were more diverse, with prominent phosphorylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, and lesser amounts of ubiquitination, crotonylation, and acetylation ( Fig. 5; Supplemental Data S15). This indicated that the translation initiation of P. falciparum proteins was mainly regulated by phosphorylation, but subsequent processes were co-regulated by other modifications.

PTMomics of parasite-derived pathogenic factors during the IDC
The MSP family-associated host cell invasion contained the largest number of by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from modified sites of phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, 2hydroxyisobutyrylation, and N-glycosylation, and the PTM predominantly occurred at the later stages of parasite development (Fig. 6B), indicating that PTMs may actively regulate the function of this critical protein family. In P. falciparum, MSP1 is a polymorphic protein that interacts with other peripheral merozoite surface proteins such as MSP3, MSP7, serine repeat antigen 4 (SERA4), and SERA5 to form a large complex (77). MSP1, MSP3, and MSP7 all undergo proteolytic processing during the schizont stage or at the tight junction between the invading merozoite and erythrocyte (77)(78)(79). We identified one crotonylated site of MSP3 at K169 with the highest abundance at 40 h, and three modification sites of MSP7, including phosphorylated S54 with the lowest abundance at 48 h, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylated and crotonylated K303 with the highest abundance at 48 h ( Fig. 6B; Supplemental Data S16).
Compared to MSP3 and MSP7, PTMs on MSP1 were much more prevalent. It is known that proteolytic maturation of MSP1 is important for parasite viability due to its binding activity to erythrocyte spectrin, which critically regulates parasite egress from pRBCs (80). Surprisingly, we identified 28 modifications on 21 residues of MSP1, with 16 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation sites, nine crotonylation sites, one phosphorylated site, one acetylation site, and one N-glycosylation site ( Fig. 6C; Supplemental Data S16). Similar to that of MSP7 (MSP7-S54 ph ), phosphorylation occurred at the N-terminus of MSP1 (MSP1-T122 ph ), and the modification abundance showed the lowest at 48 h ( Fig. 6B and C). Otherwise, many modification sites on MSP1 were located in the conserved domains, such as K282 hib , K282 cr , K325 cr , K361 hib , K361 cr , K368 hib , K456 hib , K492 hib , and K492 cr in the fam superfamily domain, K1023 hib , K1139 hib , K1139 cr , K1190 hib , K1214 hib , and K1463 hib in the C domain, and N1659 gly in the EGF_3 domain (Fig. 6C), indicating that the modifications may critically regulate functions such as proteolytic processing and molecular binding. The modifications K1463 hib , K1538 hib , K1573 cr , and N1659 gly , with the highest levels at 48 h, were located in the MSP1-42 fragment. The level of glycosylation (N1659) in MSP119, the only fragment of MSP1 that was carried into by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 29 erythrocytes with the parasite, reached the highest at 48 h ( Fig. 6B and C).
During Plasmodium infection, the host immune system along with the inflammatory response is activated in order to eliminate the parasites (5). To escape the attack, the surface of pRBCs changes significantly to avoid immune recognition and to adhere to the vascular cells for escaping spleen-mediated filtration (4).
Cytoadherence of the iRBCs is conferred by a high-molecular-weight protein, P. The modification sites were located in both extracellular and intracellular regions of the molecule. We did not observe phosphorylation in these PfEMP1s as reported recently (82), probably due to the lack of expression of the CSA-binding variant in our parasites.
Ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA) was 2-hydroxyisobutyrylated at K710 and phosphorylated at S313 and S558. The largest known protein (Pf332), transported into the host cell cytoplasm and probably involved in adhesion and cytoskeletal interaction (37), was identified as being phosphorylated at S2346 in previous studies (17). We found that this protein was 2-hydroxyisobutyrylated at by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from 30 K5875 and phosphorylated at S759, S1379, and S2583 ( Fig. 6B; Supplemental Data S16). Furthermore, the exported proteins, Plasmodium Helical Interspersed Subtelomeric (PHIST) family with 89 members underwent extensive modifications ( Fig. 6A and B; Fig. 4S; Supplemental Data S16). Based on the presence and positions of several conserved tryptophan residues, the PHIST protein family has been divided into three subgroups: PHISTa with 26 members, PHISTb with 24 members, and PHISTc with 18 members (83). PHIST proteins are central to host cell remodeling, but despite their obvious importance in pathology, PHIST proteins seem to be understudied (84). PF3D7_0424600 (PHISTb) has been found to be phosphorylated at T124 in previous studies (17). trafficking (84). There is evidence for PHISTc protein PF3D7_0936800 to also be localized at the host cell membrane and that the protein interacts with the ATS domain of PfEMP1, albeit at a level much weaker than LyMP (PHISTb, PF3D7_0532400).
We identified 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation at K281 with high modification abundance at 16, 32, and 48 h (Fig. 4S; Supplemental Data S16). In addition, we identified Nglycosylation and acetylation in PHISTc, but not in PHISTa or PHISTb, indicating that the function of PHISTc might be relatively more diverse (Fig. 4S).

PTMomics of key receptors on the RBC surface associated with parasite invasion and pathogenesis
The RBC receptors of P. falciparum ligands were actively modified with significant PTM changes (FDR < 0.01) during IDC. Here, an interaction network (Pearson's correlation > 0.8) of the proteins based on the modification sites ( Fig. 7; Supplemental Data S17) was created, and the proteins positioned at the key points were complement factors and receptors, CD molecules, and apolipoproteins (Fig. 7), all of which have been associated with P. falciparum invasion, immune response, erythrocyte deformability, anemia, and lipid metabolism.
The PTM abundances of the seven modification sites on C3 (C3-K678 cr , C3-N85 gly , C3-K1203 ac , C3-K1325 cr , C3-K1050 cr , C3-K1050 ac , and C3-K1526 cr ) were positively correlated with each other; meanwhile, the abundance of the four Nglycosylation sites on CFH (CFH-N1034 gly , CFH-N882 gly , CFH-N1029 gly , and CFH-N911 gly ) and the acetylation on CFB (CFB-K732 ac ) were also positively correlated with that of C3 ( Fig. 7; Supplemental Data S17). However, the abundance of Nglycosylation of CR1 (N509 gly , N578 gly , N897 gly , and N1908 gly ) was negatively correlated with those of C3, CFB, and CFH. The abundance of N-glycosylation of CD55 (CD55-N95 gly ) was positively correlated with that of CR1 and negatively correlated with that of C3 (Fig. 7). Since the PTM abundance at a specific time reflected the activeness of the proteins at the time due to PTM regulation being a fast and efficient way to regulate life activities (9), the negative correlation between the PTM abundance of the two receptor groups indicated that PTM regulation was actively manipulated by the parasite during host immune attack. In addition, apolipoproteins could interact with C3 and hemoglobin HBB, and the abundance of the modification sites (APOA1-K120 ac , APOA1-K157 cr , APOL1-S314 ph , APOL1-by guest on December 12, 2020 K364 ac , and APOL1-S311 ph ) of apolipoproteins was positively correlated with that of C3 and negatively correlated with that of HBB (Fig. 7).

PTMomics of proteins in the key metabolic pathways of P. falciparum
During the erythrocytic stage, P. falciparum relies principally on anaerobic glycolysis for energy production, and the enzymes of parasite glycolysis were found modified by phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, and ubiquitination, and the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) in the purine salvage pathway was extensively modified by acylation (acetylation, crotonylation, and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation) (Fig. S5). Phosphofructokinase (PFK) and pyruvate kinase (PK) are the rate-limiting enzymes in the glycolytic pathway (95), and these were modified by 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, crotonylation, acetylation, and phosphorylation, and PK-K38 ac and PK-K477 hib predominantly occurred at the early trophozoite stage; PK-K116 hib/cr , PK-K121 cr , and PK-S461 ph had high abundance at the later developmental stages (Supplemental Data S10).
Interestingly, all modifications occurred in the conserved domain of PFK (Fig. S5) and not in the active site of the enzyme, suggesting that, unlike in Trypanosoma brucei (96), the PTMs are mainly involved in the structural homeostasis of the enzymes in P. falciparum.
We did not observe any modification of adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT), but we identified 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, acetylation, and crotonylation on HPRT, including HPRT-K103 hib , HPRT-K37 hib , and HPRT-K223 ac with high abundance at early developmental stages, and highly abundant HPRT-K62 cr at the later developmental stages (Supplemental Data S10). Similar to that of PK, all modified sites were located in the conserved domain. Glucose-6-phosphatedehydrogenase (G6PD) is a metabolic enzyme involved in the pentose phosphate pathway (Fig. S5); the enzyme exists in both P. falciparum and human hosts.
Interestingly, no modification of P. falciparum G6PD was observed, but phosphorylation and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation of G6PD of the human RBCs were by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from identified on S84 and K95 (Supplemental Data S10), respectively. The abundance of G6PD-K95 hib reached the highest point at 40 h (Supplemental Data S10).

Discussion
The results of this study and those reported earlier suggest that PTMs, widely present in all developmental stages of proteins of both P. falciparum and iRBCs, play an important role in the regulation of Plasmodium development. It is known that gene expression of P. falciparum during the IDC is highly periodic, with the majority of genes expressed in a "just-in-time" fashion, and the regulatory mechanisms are complex and remain largely uncharacterized (40). Here, we found that in the process of gene expression, the structural changes of nucleosomes containing histones were most closely related to acetylation. The transcription process and the initiation of translation were mainly regulated by phosphorylation. Translation elongation and ribosomal processing were jointly regulated by various types of modification.
Proteins with the same amino acid sequence may function in different cell compartments and at different time points. This study suggested that most PTMs in both P. falciparum and the iRBCs were tightly coordinated with the development of the parasite (Figs. 2, 3). Of the six PTM types analyzed, phosphorylation and ubiquitination of parasite proteins displayed significant changes between P.
falciparum-infected RBCs and the healthy RBCs, indicating that the two modifications have important roles in erythrocyte nesting post-invasion. Proteins with acetylation were predominantly located in the nucleus and ribosomes in P. falciparum and are likely involved in gene regulation processes, especially chromatin structural modulation and protein processing (Figs. 4 and 5). N-glycosylation mainly occurred on erythrocytic proteins involved in complement activation, the coagulation cascade, the fibrinolysis system, immune regulation, receptor binding, defense response, and lipid metabolism (Fig. 3). Protein N-glycosylation of the infected erythrocytes changed dramatically (Cluster 1 and Cluster 5 in Fig. 3) during the invasion stage of by guest on December 12, 2020 P. falciparum (48 h), such as N-glycosylation of MSP1, CR1, and basigin (Supplementary data S13).
The interaction between the parasite-derived ligands and host cell receptors has long been the focus of many studies, especially in the area of molecular pathogenesis.
However, the influence of PTM on proteins in the interaction with host cell proteins has not been as thoroughly researched. Here, we systematically characterized PTMs of the pathogenesis-related proteins, including the parasite virulence factors. Malaria parasites invade RBCs under a cascade of receptor recognition, adhesion, and penetration processes that depend on the engagement of merozoite-derived ligands with the receptors on the surface of the human erythrocyte (6,97). We found that PTMs might be closely related to this process, since PTMs of proteins derived from P. falciparum were identified; for example, the phosphorylation, acetylation, crotonylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, and N-glycosylation of MSPs; phosphorylation of RON2, RON4, GAPs, and MyoA; and ubiquitination, phosphorylation, and crotonylation of Actin. Meanwhile, PTMs of proteins derived from RBCs were identified, for example, N-glycosylation of CR1 and basigin; Nglycosylation and ubiquitination of GPA; and phosphorylation, crotonylation, and 2hydroxyisobutylation of GPC. Among these examples, the MSP family members were heavily modified at the early developmental stages of the parasite (Fig. 6), and it is postulated that PTMs can be critical for correct processing, structure formation, and translocation of the proteins within the parasite and the iRBCs.
Furthermore, it was interesting to find that P. falciparum actively stabilized certain human RBC proteins for the benefit of its development, probably via PTMs.
For example, spectrin can bind to MSP1 to affect the RBC membrane curling ability of P. falciparum (98); actin filaments mediate PfEMP1 trafficking from Maurer's clefts (MCs) to the RBC membrane (99). SLC4A1 is the major intrinsic membrane protein of red blood cells (100) and functions as a host receptor binding to MSP1 during the invasion into erythrocytes (101), and dematin can bind to 14-3-3 involved in a large number of cellular processes (102). Furthermore, studies have found that by guest on December 12, 2020 https://www.mcponline.org Downloaded from iron bound to transferrin is the source of ferric ions for malaria parasites within mature erythrocytes (103). Here, the extent of PTMs, especially ubiquitination of these RBC structural proteins, was much lower in iRBCs than in RBCs, and the protein quantities were also greater in iRBCs than in RBCs. Thus, it could be hypothesized that the parasite stabilizes essential proteins for the purpose of its own development through selective dephosphorylation and de-ubiquitination.
Erythrocyte remodeling permits protein trafficking, harvesting of nutrients, and immune evasion. During the process of erythrocyte remodeling, the key molecules derived from both parasites and their host cells were extensively modified after protein translation. For example, PfEMP1 has been recognized as one of the virulence factors associated with severe malaria pathogenesis, and the modifications occurred in both the extracellular and intracellular domains, suggesting the critical roles of PTMs in both structural stability and molecular interaction of the functionally important protein family. PHIST proteins, central to host cell remodeling and thus of obvious importance in pathology, seem to be understudied; however, they underwent extensive modifications (Fig. 4S). In addition, PTMs are widely distributed among the metabolically important enzymes involved in glycolysis and the pentose phosphate and purine salvage pathways. However, unlike in the homologous enzymes of Trypanosoma parasites, the modified amino acids were not located in the substratebinding sites, but rather were situated in the conserved domains of the enzymes, suggesting that PTMs might be involved in structural maintenance instead of enzymatic activity.
In conclusion, the establishment of the atlas of PTMomes of P. falciparum and its host cells will promote a deeper understanding of parasite biology and parasite-host interaction, and the data also provide a candidate list in the search for antimalarials.