Human malignant malaria is caused by
Plasmodium falciparum
and accounts for almost 900,000 deaths per
year, the majority of which are children and pregnant women in developing countries. There has been significant
effort to understand the biology of
P. falciparum and its interactions with the host. However, these studies are
hindered because several aspects of parasite biology remain controversial, such as N- and O-glycosylation. This
review describes work that has been done to elucidate protein glycosylation in
P. falciparum and it focuses on describing
biochemical evidence for N- and O-glycosylation. Although there has been significant work in this field,
these aspects of parasite biochemistry need to be explored further.
