Comaprative survey of the global intraerythrocytic transcriptome of 3 isogenic clones of the 3D7 strain of plasmodium falciparum.

Abstract

Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal form of 4 human malarial parasites. In the malaria life cycle, the asexual intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) is responsible for the pathogenesis observed in the disease. Therefore an understanding of the parasite developmental changes in the IDC is crucial to understanding the parasite and the identification of suitable drug and/or vaccine targets. In this study, I compared the global transcriptional profile of 3 isogenic clones of the 3D7 strain of P. falciparum using a 2 channel microarray approach. Our results show that there are significant isogenic differences in the transcriptome levels of genes involved in fundamental metabolic reactions and parasite invasion and motility. It also show a possible co-regulation of Maurer's cleft and PfEMP1 genes. Comparative genomic hybridisation also revealed isogenic copy number variations for trasncriptional machinery genes. These provide evidence for the sophistication involved in transcriptional regulations differences between isogenic variants of the 3d7 strain of P. falciparum.