The troubled puberty of malaria parasites

Jonas Gockel; Till S Voss; Richárd Bártfai

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2023.01.006

The troubled puberty of malaria parasites

Trends Parasitol. 2023 Mar;39(3):155-157. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.01.006. Epub 2023 Jan 24.

Authors

Jonas Gockel¹, Till S Voss², Richárd Bártfai³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Biology, Radboud University, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
² Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4001 Basel, Switzerland.
³ Department of Molecular Biology, Radboud University, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.bartfai@science.ru.nl.

PMID: 36702699
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.01.006

Abstract

Sexual differentiation of malaria parasites is essential for transmission, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Russell et al. elegantly combined a loss-of-function screen with single-cell RNA-sequencing to identify key factors in this process. Gomes et al. further characterized one of them, MD1, as a regulator contributing to male fate determination.

Keywords: Plasmodium; gametocytes; malaria; sex determination; sexual differentiation; transmission.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Female
Humans
Malaria* / parasitology
Male
Parasites*
Puberty
Sexual Development