An SR protein is essential for the recovery of malaria parasites from DNA damage and exposure to artemisinin

Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for the deadliest form of human malaria, maintains a complex life cycle with a relatively small number of genes. PfSR1 is an alternative splicing factor that regulates expansion of the P. falciparum protein repertoire. To further investigate PfSR1 functions, we set to unveil its interactome. We found that PfSR1 interacts with proteins, which are linked to various processes of RNA metabolism in a stage-dependent manner. These include: chromatin re-modeling, transcription, splicing and translation. Intriguingly, some of the PfSR1 interacting proteins are orthologues of proteins implicated in the DNA damage response. We demonstrate that PfSR1 expression is important for preventing the accumulation of DNA damage in proliferating parasites. In addition, following parasites exposure to a source of DNA damage, PfSR1 is recruited to damaged foci where it interacts with the phosphorylated core histone PfH2A, which marks damaged chromatin. Furthermore, PfSR1 expression was found to be essential for the ability of the parasite to activate the DNA repair machinery and recover from DNA damage caused by either irradiation or exposure to artemisinin, the first line anti-malarial drug. These findings unveil a novel role of PfSR1 in protecting P. falciparum from DNA damage and artemisinin exposure.