Overview over different chromatin states indexing the genome in ring stage parasites and female gametocytes. A ring stage parasite and a female gametocyte are schematically depicted. The differently colored spheres represent nucleosomes that carry distinct histone variants and modifications. The ATG indicates the position of the gene starts. Heterochromatic genes are shown as more condensed areas either in dark red as nucleosomes containing only H3K9me3 (state 10 in rings), or in light red as nucleosomes containing both H3K9me3 and H2A.Z (state 2 in female gametocytes). In the euchromatin compartment, regions upstream of active genes contain mostly state 6 nucleosomes (dark green), and to a lesser extent state 5 nucleosomes (light green) in ring stage parasites, whereas this ratio is reversed in female gametocytes with most nucleosomes present in state 5. In female gametocytes, most gene bodies contain state 3 nucleosomes (orange), which are dominated by H3K4me3 and H3R17me2 and some state 4 nucleosomes (light orange), that additionally carry low levels of H3K27ac—in contrast to rings where state 1 (none of the investigated modifications) is predominant (grey). Further, genes poised in ring stage parasites for activation later during the asexual cycle (e.g. invasion, cell cycle) carry state 11 nucleosomes in their upstream region (yellow). In female gametocytes, genes that are inactivated, such as invasion genes, are characterized by state 7, 8, and 9 nucleosomes in their upstream region depicted in shades of blue. State 12 was mostly prevalent in convergent intergenic regions and introns and is therefore not represented in this figure. Jeninga MD, Tang J, Selvarajah SA, Maier AG, Duffy MF, Petter M. Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes display global chromatin remodelling during sexual differentiation. BMC Biol. 2023 21(1):65. PMID: 37013531