Abstract
BackgroundPlasmodium falciparum malaria is a significant problem around the world today, thus there is still a need for new control methods to be developed. Because the sporozoite displays dual infectivity for both the mosquito salivary glands and vertebrate host tissue, it is a good target for vaccine development.MethodsThe P. falciparum gene, PF11_0394, was chosen as a candidate for study due to its potential role in the invasion of host tissues. This gene, which was selected using a data mining approach from PlasmoDB, is expressed both at the transcriptional and protein levels in sporozoites and likely encodes a putative surface protein. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-trafficking studies, a transcript and protein expression profile of PF11_0394 was determined.ResultsThe PF11_0394 protein has orthologs in other Plasmodium species and Apicomplexans, but none outside of the group Apicomplexa. PF11_0394 transcript was found to be present during both the sporozoite and erythrocytic stages of the parasite life cycle, but no transcript was detected during axenic exoerythrocytic stages. Despite the presence of transcript throughout several life cycle stages, the PF11_0394 protein was only detected in salivary gland sporozoites.ConclusionsPF11_0394 appears to be a protein uniquely detected in salivary gland sporozoites. Even though a specific function of PF11_0394 has not been determined in P. falciparum biology, it could be another candidate for a new vaccine.
Highlights
Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a significant problem around the world today, there is still a need for new control methods to be developed
Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-trafficking studies, it was determined that PF11_0394 has transcript present during several life cycle stages, but its protein is only detected during the salivary gland sporozoite stage
Additional sequence analysis using PROSITE, PROTCOMP, Profam, and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (BLASTp) sites predicted that the protein has no GPIanchor, has multiple glycosylation and phosphorylation sites and has no functional identity with other known proteins [16,28]
Summary
Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a significant problem around the world today, there is still a need for new control methods to be developed. It is estimated that 225 million cases of malaria occur annually and, of those, 750,000 are fatal [2,3]. Because of these issues, it is critical for improved and/or new malaria control methods to be developed. This study characterized in depth the P. falciparum gene, PF11_0394, at the transcript and protein levels to determine its expression profile during various life cycle stages. Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-trafficking studies, it was determined that PF11_0394 has transcript present during several life cycle stages, but its protein is only detected during the salivary gland sporozoite stage
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