African trypanosomes evade clearance by host antibodies by periodically changing their variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat. They transcribe only one VSG gene at a time from 1 of about 20 telomeric expression sites (ESs). They undergo antigenic variation by switching transcription between telomeric ESs or by recombination of the VSG gene expressed. We show that the inositol phosphate (IP) pathway controls transcription of telomeric ESs and VSG antigenic switching in Trypanosoma brucei. Conditional knockdown of phosphatidylinositol 5-kinase (TbPIP5K) or phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphatase (TbPIP5-Pase) or overexpression of phospholipase C (TbPLC) derepresses numerous silent ESs in T. brucei bloodstream forms. The derepression is specific to telomeric ESs, and it coincides with an increase in the number of colocalizing telomeric and RNA polymerase I foci in the nucleus. Monoallelic VSG transcription resumes after reexpression of TbPIP5K; however, most of the resultant cells switched the VSG gene expressed. TbPIP5K, TbPLC, their substrates, and products localize to the plasma membrane, whereas TbPIP5Pase localizes to the nucleus proximal to telomeres. TbPIP5Pase associates with repressor/activator protein 1 (TbRAP1), and their telomeric silencing function is altered by TbPIP5K knockdown. These results show that specific steps in the IP pathway control ES transcription and antigenic switching in T. brucei by epigenetic regulation of telomere silencing.O nly one of the ∼20 telomeric expression sites (ESs) is transcribed at a time in Trypanosoma brucei in the mammalian infectious stage bloodstream (BF) or metacyclic forms (MFs), whereas no ES is transcribed in the insect stage procyclic forms (PFs) (1). Each ES contains 1 telomeric variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene, whose expression confers a distinct cellular antigenic type and up to 12 expression site-associated genes (ESAGs) whose functions are incompletely understood ( Fig. 1A) (2-4). The parasites evade immune clearance by periodically changing antigenic type by switching transcription between ESs or by ES recombination with the ∼2,500 non-ES VSG genes and pseudogenes (5, 6). ESs are transcribed by RNA polymerase I (Pol I), which initiates at the single promoter at all ESs but terminates within a few kilobases except at one fully transcribed ES (7,8).RNAi knockdown of expression of the nuclear protein TbRAP1 that interacts with the TTAGGG-binding factor (TbTRF) or of the nuclear lamina protein 1 (TbNUP1) or deletion of the histonelysine N-methyltransferase DOT1B (TbDOT1B) alleles each results in transcription of silent ESs (9-11). Similarly, RNAi knockdown of the transcription facilitating histone chaperone suppressor of ty 16 (TbSPT16) or the SWI2/SNF2-related chromatin-remodeling protein TbISWI or deletion of histone deacetylase sirtuin 2-related protein 1 (TbSIR2RP1) each increases transcription near the promoter but not the VSG gene of silent . These results indicate that the control of ES transcription involves telomeric silencing (15), which entails...