Rosetting is the capacity of infected RBCs to bind uninfected RBCs, which is consistently associated with severe malaria in African children. The rosette-forming PfEMP1 adhesins, namely IT4/R29, Palo Alto 89F5 VarO, 3D7/PF13_0003 and IT4/var60, belong to a specific sub-group called groupA/UpsA var genes and all four present a specific Duffy Binding-Like and and Cysteine-Rich Interdomain Region (DBL1alpha1-CIDR1gamma) double domain Head region found at the extracellular region of PfEMP1. This entry represents the CIDR1gamma domain which increases the binding affinity to VarO (Palo Alto VarO parasites) [1-2].

1: Structural basis for the ABO blood-group dependence of Plasmodium falciparum rosetting. Vigan-Womas I, Guillotte M, Juillerat A, Hessel A, Raynal B, England P, Cohen JH, Bertrand O, Peyrard T, Bentley GA, Lewit-Bentley A, Mercereau-Puijalon O; PLoS Pathog. 2012;8:e1002781. PMID:22807674

2: Structural conservation despite huge sequence diversity allows EPCR binding by the PfEMP1 family implicated in severe childhood malaria. Lau CK, Turner L, Jespersen JS, Lowe ED, Petersen B, Wang CW, Petersen JE, Lusingu J, Theander TG, Lavstsen T, Higgins MK; Cell Host Microbe. 2015;17:118-129. PMID:25482433