title: Sex-Specific Biology of the Human Malaria Parasite Revealed from the Proteomes of Mature Male and Female Gametocytes.
abstract: The gametocytes of the malaria parasites are obligate for perpetuating the parasite's life cycle through mosquitoes, but the sex-specific biology of gametocytes is poorly understood. We generated a transgenic line in the human malaria parasitePlasmodium falciparum, which allowed us to accurately separate male and female gametocytes by flow cytometry. In-depth analysis of the proteomes by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry identified 1244 and 1387 proteins in mature male and female gametocytes, respectively. GFP-tagging of nine selected proteins confirmed their sex-partitions to be agreeable with the results from the proteomic analysis. The sex-specific proteomes showed significant differences that are consistent with the divergent functions of the two sexes. Although the male-specific proteome (119 proteins) is enriched in proteins associated with the flagella and genome replication, the female-specific proteome (262 proteins) is more abundant in proteins involved in metabolism, translation and organellar functions. Compared with thePlasmodium bergheisex-specific proteomes, this study revealed both extensive conservation and considerable divergence between these two species, which reflect the disparities between the two species in proteins involved in cytoskeleton, lipid metabolism and protein degradation. Comparison with three sex-specific proteomes allowed us to obtain high-confidence lists of 73 and 89 core male- and female-specific/biased proteins conserved inPlasmodiumThe identification of sex-specific/biased proteomes inPlasmodiumlays a solid foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the unique sex-specific biology in this early-branching eukaryote.
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802; jum23@psu.edu luc2@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: §Department of Statistics, The Pennsylvania State University, 413 Thomas Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Zenglei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Sony
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shrestha
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Xiaolian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: §Department of Statistics, The Pennsylvania State University, 413 Thomas Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
authors.forename: Runze
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802; jum23@psu.edu luc2@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Liwang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005260:Female; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000502:physiology; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D012737:Sex Factors; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins