scholarly journals Dynamic and Combinatorial Landscape of Histone Modifications during the Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle of the Malaria Parasite

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 2787-2801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Saraf ◽  
Serena Cervantes ◽  
Evelien M. Bunnik ◽  
Nadia Ponts ◽  
Mihaela E. Sardiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Histone Modifications ◽  
Malaria Parasite ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle

scholarly journals Refining the transcriptome of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum using amplification-free RNA-seq

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia Chappell ◽  
Philipp Ross ◽  
Lindsey Orchard ◽  
Thomas D. Otto ◽  
Matthew Berriman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Malaria Parasite ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Human Malaria Parasite ◽  
Human Malaria ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle ◽  
Transcriptional Start Sites

AbstractPlasmodium parasites undergo several major developmental transitions during their complex lifecycle, which are enabled by precisely ordered gene expression programs. Transcriptomes from the 48-hour blood stages of the major human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum have been described using cDNA microarrays and RNA-seq, but these assays have not always performed well within non-coding regions, where the AT-content is often 90-95%. We developed a directional, amplification-free RNA-seq protocol (DAFT-seq) to reduce bias against AT-rich cDNA, which we have applied to three strains of P. falciparum (3D7, HB3 and IT). While strain-specific differences were detected, overall there is strong conservation between the transcriptional profiles. For the 3D7 reference strain, transcription was detected from 89% of the genome, with over 75% of the genome transcribed into mRNAs. These datasets allowed us to refine the 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs), which can be variable, long (>1,000 nt), and often overlap those of adjacent transcripts. We also find that transcription from bidirectional promoters frequently results in non-coding, antisense transcripts. By capturing the 5’ ends of mRNAs, we reveal both constant and dynamic use of transcriptional start sites across the intraerythrocytic developmental cycle resulting in an updated view of the P. falciparum transcriptome.

scholarly journals The Transcriptome of the Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle of Plasmodium falciparum

PLoS Biology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbynek Bozdech ◽  
Manuel Llinás ◽  
Brian Lee Pulliam ◽  
Edith D Wong ◽  
Jingchun Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle

scholarly journals Biosynthesis of GDP-fucose and Other Sugar Nucleotides in the Blood Stages of Plasmodium falciparum

2013 ◽  
Vol 288 (23) ◽  
pp. 16506-16517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Sanz ◽  
Giulia Bandini ◽  
Diego Ospina ◽  
Maria Bernabeu ◽  
Karina Mariño ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Cell Communication ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Metabolic Labeling ◽  
Sugar Nucleotides ◽  
Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle

Carbohydrate structures play important roles in many biological processes, including cell adhesion, cell-cell communication, and host-pathogen interactions. Sugar nucleotides are activated forms of sugars used by the cell as donors for most glycosylation reactions. Using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-based method, we identified and quantified the pools of UDP-glucose, UDP-galactose, UDP-N-acetylglucosamine, GDP-mannose, and GDP-fucose in Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic life stages. We assembled these data with the in silico functional reconstruction of the parasite metabolic pathways obtained from the P. falciparum annotated genome, exposing new active biosynthetic routes crucial for further glycosylation reactions. Fucose is a sugar present in glycoconjugates often associated with recognition and adhesion events. Thus, the GDP-fucose precursor is essential in a wide variety of organisms. P. falciparum presents homologues of GDP-mannose 4,6-dehydratase and GDP-l-fucose synthase enzymes that are active in vitro, indicating that most GDP-fucose is formed by a de novo pathway that involves the bioconversion of GDP-mannose. Homologues for enzymes involved in a fucose salvage pathway are apparently absent in the P. falciparum genome. This is in agreement with in vivo metabolic labeling experiments showing that fucose is not significantly incorporated by the parasite. Fluorescence microscopy of epitope-tagged versions of P. falciparum GDP-mannose 4,6-dehydratase and GDP-l-fucose synthase expressed in transgenic 3D7 parasites shows that these enzymes localize in the cytoplasm of P. falciparum during the intraerythrocytic developmental cycle. Although the function of fucose in the parasite is not known, the presence of GDP-fucose suggests that the metabolite may be used for further fucosylation reactions.

scholarly journals Metabolic host responses to malarial infection during the intraerythrocytic developmental cycle

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Wallqvist ◽  
Xin Fang ◽  
Shivendra G. Tewari ◽  
Ping Ye ◽  
Jaques Reifman
Keyword(s):  
Host Responses ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Malarial Infection ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle

scholarly journals Efficient transcriptome profiling across the malaria parasite erythrocytic cycle by flow sorting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliou Dia ◽  
Catherine Jett ◽  
Marina McDew-White ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Timothy J.C. Anderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Malaria Parasite ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Gene Expression Profiles ◽  
Transcriptome Profiling ◽  
Complex Life Cycle ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Mosquito Vector ◽  
Flow Sorting ◽  
Erythrocytic Cycle

AbstractPlasmodium falciparum is the most virulent and widespread of the human malaria parasite species. This parasite has a complex life cycle that involves sexual replication in a mosquito vector and asexual replication in a human host. During the 48-hour intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC), parasites develop and multiply through the morphologically distinct ring, trophozoite and schizont stages. Stage-specific transcriptomic approaches have shown gene expression profiles continually change throughout the IDC. Cultures of tightly synchronized parasites are required to capture the transcriptome specific to a developmental stage. However, the most commonly used synchronization methods require lysis of late stages, potentially perturbing transcription, and often do not result in tightly synchronized cultures. To produce complete transcriptome profiles of the IDC a synchronous culture requires frequent sampling over a 48-hour period, this is both time consuming and labor intensive. Here we develop a method to sample the IDC densely by isolating parasites from an asynchronous culture with fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). We sort parasites in tight windows of IDC progression based on their DNA/RNA abundance. We confirmed the tight synchronization and stage specificity by light microscopy and RNAseq profiling. We optimized our protocol for low numbers of sorted cells allowing us to rapidly capture transcriptome profiles across the entire IDC from a single culture flask. This methodology will allow malaria stage-specific studies to perform experiments directly from asynchronous cultures with high accuracy and without the need for labor-intensive time-course experiments.

scholarly journals An intrinsic oscillator drives the blood stage cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 368 (6492) ◽  
pp. 754-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren M. Smith ◽  
Francis C. Motta ◽  
Garima Chopra ◽  
J. Kathleen Moch ◽  
Robert R. Nerem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Malaria Parasite ◽  
Blood Stage ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Cycle Period ◽  
Molecular Signatures ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Cell Variance

The blood stage of the infection of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum exhibits a 48-hour developmental cycle that culminates in the synchronous release of parasites from red blood cells, which triggers 48-hour fever cycles in the host. This cycle could be driven extrinsically by host circadian processes or by a parasite-intrinsic oscillator. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we examine the P. falciparum cycle in an in vitro culture system and show that the parasite has molecular signatures associated with circadian and cell cycle oscillators. Each of the four strains examined has a different period, which indicates strain-intrinsic period control. Finally, we demonstrate that parasites have low cell-to-cell variance in cycle period, on par with a circadian oscillator. We conclude that an intrinsic oscillator maintains Plasmodium’s rhythmic life cycle.

A new Plasmodium falciparum field isolate from Benin in continuous culture: Infectivity of fresh-produced and cryopreserved gametocytes to Anopheles gambiae

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adandé A. Medjigbodo ◽  
Festus K. Acquah ◽  
Laurette Djossou ◽  
Linda E. Amoah ◽  
Edgard-Marius Ouendo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Anopheles Gambiae ◽  
Field Isolate ◽  
Infected Mosquito ◽  
Developmental Cycle ◽  
Transmission Blocking ◽  
Field Isolates ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle ◽  
Transmission Blocking Vaccines

Abstract Transmission-blocking vaccines and drugs are likely to be key interventions in efforts to achieve malaria elimination. However, transmission-blocking studies are reliant upon a limited number of culture-adapted strains of Plasmodium falciparum with limited genetic variability, or on field isolates which are only maintained transiently in the laboratory and therefore not amenable to replication studies. Herein, we investigated the gametocytogenesis capacity and infectivity to Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes of a P. falciparum field isolate collected from a malaria patient from Benin compared to those of NF54 strain. The intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) was similar in both P. falciparum strains (ranges of parasitaemias were respectively 0.02–11.53% and 0.035–10.5% throughout twelve days of culture). The culture-adapted parasites displayed a significant higher infectivity to An. gambiae compared to that of NF54 (mean oocyst prevalence and intensity: 16.94%, CI95%= [15.15–18.73] vs. 3.13%, CI95%= [2.30–3.96], p < 0.0001 and 3 vs. 1 oocysts/infected mosquito, p = 0.002 respectively). Even after cryopreservation for up to 14 days, gametocytes from the field isolates were capable of infecting An. gambiae mosquitoes at a prevalence of up to 30% with an average of 12 oocysts/ midgut. This new P. falciparum strain will enhance malaria transmission-blocking studies in endemic countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document