Stochastic expression of invasion genes in Plasmodium falciparum schizonts. 2022

Jaishree Tripathi, and Lei Zhu, and Sourav Nayak, and Michal Stoklasa, and Zbynek Bozdech
School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637551, Singapore. tjaishree@ntu.edu.sg.

Genetically identical cells are known to exhibit differential phenotypes in the same environmental conditions. These phenotypic variants are linked to transcriptional stochasticity and have been shown to contribute towards adaptive flexibility of a wide range of unicellular organisms. Here, we investigate transcriptional heterogeneity and stochastic gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum by performing the quasilinear multiple annealing and looping based amplification cycles (MALBAC) based amplification and single cell RNA sequencing of blood stage schizonts. Our data reveals significant transcriptional variations in the schizont stage with a distinct group of highly variable invasion gene transcripts being identified. Moreover, the data reflects several diversification processes including putative developmental "checkpoint"; transcriptomically distinct parasite sub-populations and transcriptional switches in variable gene families (var, rifin, phist). Most of these features of transcriptional variability are preserved in isogenic parasite cell populations (albeit with a lesser amplitude) suggesting a role of epigenetic factors in cell-to-cell transcriptional variations in human malaria parasites. Lastly, we apply quantitative RT-PCR and RNA-FISH approach and confirm stochastic expression of key invasion genes, such as, msp1, msp3, msp7, eba181 and ama1 which represent prime candidates for invasion-blocking vaccines.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D010963 Plasmodium falciparum A species of protozoa that is the causal agent of falciparum malaria (MALARIA, FALCIPARUM). It is most prevalent in the tropics and subtropics. Plasmodium falciparums,falciparums, Plasmodium
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D017125 Genes, Protozoan The functional hereditary units of protozoa. Protozoan Genes,Gene, Protozoan,Protozoan Gene
D052939 Schizonts Multinucleate cells or a stage in the development of sporozoan protozoa. It is exemplified by the life cycle of PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM in the MALARIA infection cycle. Schizont

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