| Title: |
Regulators of male and female sexual development are critical for the transmission of a malaria parasite. |
| Authors: |
Russell, AJC; Sanderson, T; Bushell, E; Talman, AM; Anar, B; Girling, G; Hunziker, M; Kent, RS; Martin, JS; Metcalf, T; Montandon, R; Pandey, V; Pardo, M; Roberts, AB; Sayers, C; Schwach, F; Choudhary, JS; Rayner, JC; Voet, T; Modrzynska, KK; Waters, AP; Lawniczak, MKN; Billker, O |
| Contributors: |
Pardo Calvo, Maria Mercedes; Choudhary, Jyoti |
| Publisher Information: |
CELL PRESS |
| Publication Year: |
2023 |
| Collection: |
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR): Publications Repository |
| Subject Terms: |
Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Microbiology; Parasitology; Virology; PLASMODIUM; COMMITMENT; REPRESSION; PROTEINS; DATABASE; REVEALS; HISAT; LOTUS; RATIO |
| Description: |
Malaria transmission to mosquitoes requires a developmental switch in asexually dividing blood-stage parasites to sexual reproduction. In Plasmodium berghei, the transcription factor AP2-G is required and sufficient for this switch, but how a particular sex is determined in a haploid parasite remains unknown. Using a global screen of barcoded mutants, we here identify genes essential for the formation of either male or female sexual forms and validate their importance for transmission. High-resolution single-cell transcriptomics of ten mutant parasites portrays the developmental bifurcation and reveals a regulatory cascade of putative gene functions in the determination and subsequent differentiation of each sex. A male-determining gene with a LOTUS/OST-HTH domain as well as the protein interactors of a female-determining zinc-finger protein indicate that germ-granule-like ribonucleoprotein complexes complement transcriptional processes in the regulation of both male and female development of a malaria parasite. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
+; application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| ISSN: |
1934-6069; 1931-3128 |
| Relation: |
Cell Host and Microbe, 2023, 31 (2), pp. 305 - +; https://repository.icr.ac.uk/handle/internal/5788 |
| DOI: |
10.1016/j.chom.2022.12.011 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2022.12.011; https://repository.icr.ac.uk/handle/internal/5788 |
| Rights: |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.BC8BC30F |
| Database: |
BASE |