TY - JOUR
T1 - Transposon mutagenesis identifies genes essential for Plasmodium falciparum gametocytogenesis
AU - Ikadai, Hiromi
AU - Saliba, Kathryn Shaw
AU - Kanzok, Stefan M.
AU - McLean, Kyle J.
AU - Tanaka, Takeshi Q.
AU - Cao, Jun
AU - Williamson, Kim C.
AU - Jacobs-Lorena, Marcelo
PY - 2013/4/30
Y1 - 2013/4/30
N2 - Gametocytes are essential for Plasmodium transmission, but little is known about the mechanisms that lead to their formation. Using piggyBac transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis, we screened for parasites that no longer form mature gametocytes, which led to the isolation of 29 clones (insertional gametocyte-deficient mutants) that fail to form mature gametocytes. Additional analysis revealed 16 genes putatively responsible for the loss of gametocytogenesis, none of which has been previously implicated in gametocytogenesis. Transcriptional profiling and detection of an early stage gametocyte antigen determined that a subset of these mutants arrests development at stage I or in early stage II gametocytes, likely representing genes involved in gametocyte maturation. The remaining mutants seem to arrest before formation of stage I gametocytes and may represent genes involved in commitment to the gametocyte lineage.
AB - Gametocytes are essential for Plasmodium transmission, but little is known about the mechanisms that lead to their formation. Using piggyBac transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis, we screened for parasites that no longer form mature gametocytes, which led to the isolation of 29 clones (insertional gametocyte-deficient mutants) that fail to form mature gametocytes. Additional analysis revealed 16 genes putatively responsible for the loss of gametocytogenesis, none of which has been previously implicated in gametocytogenesis. Transcriptional profiling and detection of an early stage gametocyte antigen determined that a subset of these mutants arrests development at stage I or in early stage II gametocytes, likely representing genes involved in gametocyte maturation. The remaining mutants seem to arrest before formation of stage I gametocytes and may represent genes involved in commitment to the gametocyte lineage.
KW - Gametocyte development
KW - Malaria
KW - PiggyBac insertional mutagenesis
KW - Plasmodium genetics
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1217712110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1217712110
M3 - Article
C2 - 23572579
AN - SCOPUS:84876909097
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 110
SP - E1676-E1684
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 18
ER -