title: Progress in imaging methods: insights gained into Plasmodium biology.
abstract: Over the past decade, major advances in imaging techniques have enhanced our understanding of Plasmodium spp. parasites and their interplay with mammalian hosts and mosquito vectors. Cryoelectron tomography, cryo-X-ray tomography and super-resolution microscopy have shifted paradigms of sporozoite and gametocyte structure, the process of erythrocyte invasion by merozoites, and the architecture of Maurer's clefts. Intravital time-lapse imaging has been revolutionary for our understanding of pre-erythrocytic stages of rodent Plasmodium parasites. Furthermore, high-speed imaging has revealed the link between sporozoite structure and motility, and improvements in time-lapse microscopy have enabled imaging of the entire Plasmodium falciparum erythrocytic cycle and the complete Plasmodium berghei pre-erythrocytic stages for the first time. In this Review, we discuss the contribution of key imaging tools to these and other discoveries in the malaria field over the past 10 years.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.|Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA, and Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology, University of Glasgow, 120 University Place, Glasgow, G12 8TA, UK.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Niz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Paul-Christian
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Burda
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gesine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) at Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain.|ICREA at Institut d'Investigació Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Can Ruti Campus, 08916 Badalona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Hernando A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Del Portillo
authors.affiliation: Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Spielmann
authors.affiliation: Parasitology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University School of Medicine, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Freddy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Frischknecht
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Volker T
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Heussler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy; D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D052940:Merozoites / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D034101:Sporozoites / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D059008:Time-Lapse Imaging