Triggers and tricks of Plasmodium sexual development.
Irrespective of the tremendous suffering caused by malaria, a Plasmodium infection by pathogenic blood stages is only transient and an obligate step toward the Anopheles vector where sexual reproduction and genetic recombination of the unicellular parasite takes place. Recent expression profiling studies identified the molecular make-up of female and male gametocytes. Differential promoters and translational repression through mRNA binding by a female-specific helicase help to fine-tune the expression of these sexual stage-specific genes. However, we are only just beginning to discover the triggers that initiate gametocytogenesis and the developmental programs that drive sexual development.
Kooij
Taco Wa
TW
Department of Parasitology, Heidelberg University School of Medicine, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. taco.kooij@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Matuschewski
Kai
K
D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000469:parasitology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008297:Male; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics
D015800:Protozoan Proteins