Comparative transcriptomics of female and male gametocytes in Plasmodium berghei and the evolution of sex in alveolates

LM Yeoh; CD Goodman; V Mollard; GI McFadden; SA Ralph

Journal article

Comparative transcriptomics of female and male gametocytes in Plasmodium berghei and the evolution of sex in alveolates

LM Yeoh, CD Goodman, V Mollard, GI McFadden, SA Ralph

BMC Genomics | BMC | Published : 2017

DOI: 10.1186/s12864-017-4100-0

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Abstract

Background: The clinical symptoms of malaria are caused by the asexual replication of Plasmodium parasites in the blood of the vertebrate host. To spread to new hosts, however, the malaria parasite must differentiate into sexual forms, termed gametocytes, which are ingested by a mosquito vector. Sexual differentiation produces either female or male gametocytes, and involves significant morphological and biochemical changes. These transformations prepare gametocytes for the rapid progression to gamete formation and fertilisation, which occur within 20 min of ingestion. Here we present the transcriptomes of asexual, female, and male gametocytes in P. berghei, and a comprehensive statistically-..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Christopher Dean Goodman Author

Geoffrey McFadden Author

Stuart Ralph Author

Lee Yeoh Author

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Awarded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council

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Awarded by NHMRC RD

Funding Acknowledgements

LMY was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award. GIM gratefully acknowledges a Program Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), a Discovery Project from the Australian Research Council, and an Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. SAR is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council grant (628704), an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (DP160100389) and an NHMRC RD Wright Biomedical fellowship (APP1062504). The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, nor collection, analysis and interpretation of data, nor the writing of the manuscript.