title: Development of a genetic tool for functional screening of anti-malarial bioactive extracts in metagenomic libraries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The chemical treatment of Plasmodium falciparum for human infections is losing efficacy each year due to the rise of resistance. One possible strategy to find novel anti-malarial drugs is to access the largest reservoir of genomic biodiversity source on earth present in metagenomes of environmental microbial communities.
  
  
  METHODS
  A bioluminescent P. falciparum parasite was used to quickly detect shifts in viability of microcultures grown in 96-well plates. A synthetic gene encoding the Dermaseptin 4 peptide was designed and cloned under tight transcriptional control in a large metagenomic insert context (30 kb) to serve as proof-of-principle for the screening platform.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Decrease in parasite viability consistently correlated with bioluminescence emitted from parasite microcultures, after their exposure to bacterial extracts containing a plasmid or fosmid engineered to encode the Dermaseptin 4 anti-malarial peptide.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Here, a new technical platform to access the anti-malarial potential in microbial environmental metagenomes has been developed.
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. amonguic@gmail.com.|Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. amonguic@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mongui
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. francisjpll@gmail.com.|Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. francisjpll@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Francy J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Pérez-Llanos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. masayama@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marcio M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. macheperez@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. mzambrano@corpogen.org.
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Zambrano
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. pdelportillo@corpogen.org.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Del Portillo
authors.affiliation: ICREA at ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr Int Health Res (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic - Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. carmen.fernandez@cresib.cat.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fernández-Becerra
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. srestrep@uniandes.edu.co.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.affiliation: ICREA at ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr Int Health Res (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic - Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. hernandoa.delportillo@cresib.cat.|Institució Catalana de Recerca I Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain. hernandoa.delportillo@cresib.cat.
authors.forename: Hernando A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Del Portillo
authors.affiliation: RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution - CorpoGen, Bogotá, Colombia. info@howardjunca.com.|Present Address: Applied Biology Program, Faculty of Basic & Applied Sciences, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada-UMNG, Campus Cajicá, Bogotá, DC, Colombia. info@howardjunca.com.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Junca
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000494:pharmacology*; D044822:Biodiversity; D015698:Genomic Library; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000188:drug therapy; D054892:Metagenome; D021261:Parasitic Sensitivity Tests; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D010936:Plant Extracts