Mosquito Passage Dramatically Changes var Gene Expression in Controlled Human Plasmodium falciparum Infections

PLoS Pathogens

Ralf Krumkamp¹  Judith A. M. Scholz²  Anna Bachmann²  Egbert Tannich³  Benjamin Mordmüller³  Peter G. Kremsner⁴  Jana Held⁴  Meral Esen⁴  Michael F. Duffy⁴  Michaela Petter⁵  Stephen L. Hoffman⁶  B. Kim Lee Sim⁶  Tao Li⁶ 

[1] Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine and German Center for Infection Research, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Hamburg, Germany;Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Molecular Parasitology, Hamburg, Germany;Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, Lambaréné, Gabon;Institute of Tropical Medicine and German Center for Infection Research, partner site Tübingen, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany;Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia;Sanaria Inc., Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

关键词: Parasitic diseases;    Gene expression;    Malarial parasites;    Parasite replication;    Malaria;    Blood;    Plasmodium;    Sporozoites;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1005538

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Virulence of the most deadly malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is linked to the variant surface antigen PfEMP1, which is encoded by about 60 var genes per parasite genome. Although the expression of particular variants has been associated with different clinical outcomes, little is known about var gene expression at the onset of infection. By analyzing controlled human malaria infections via quantitative real-time PCR, we show that parasite populations from 18 volunteers expressed virtually identical transcript patterns that were dominated by the subtelomeric var gene group B and, to a lesser extent, group A. Furthermore, major changes in composition and frequency of var gene transcripts were detected between the parental parasite culture that was used to infect mosquitoes and Plasmodia recovered from infected volunteers, suggesting that P. falciparum resets its var gene expression during mosquito passage and starts with the broad expression of a specific subset of var genes when entering the human blood phase.

【 授权许可】

CC BY