Study on mechanism of vector infection in arthropod borne pathogens

This year, the researchers focused on Plasmodium berghei rna binding protein 1 (pbrbp1), which is one of the identified candidate genes related to the vector mosquito infection of Plasmodium bergii. pbrbp1 is a homologue of RNA-binding protein (RBP) responsible for controlling germ cell formation in various model organisms. Therefore, pbrbp1 was also considered to be involved in the formation of germ cells corresponding to germ cells at the stage of transition of Plasmodium malaria to vector mosquitoes, and KO protozoans were prepared and phenotypic analysis was performed. As a result, a significant decrease in the number of male and female reproductive maternal formations was observed in KO protozoa, suggesting that pbrbp1 is involved in reproductive maternal formation. On the other hand, there is no difference in the number and site of midgut oocyst formation when artificial blood sucking is performed under optimal infection conditions in which a large amount of reproductive mother is induced, and it is clear that KO protozoans retain infectivity to mosquitoes. It became. Homolog RBP of pbrbp1 is responsible for gene expression regulation in the cytoplasm by suppressing translation. Therefore, a mutant protozoan in which eGFP was fused to the C-terminal of endogenous pbrbp1 was prepared and a simple localization analysis was performed. As a result, it was suggested that pbrbp1 was localized in the cytoplasm and formed a granular structure, suggesting that it may have a function similar to that of homolog RBP. As described above, in this study, we succeeded in identifying pbrbp1 as a novel factor important for the reproductive maternal formation of Plasmodium malaria. It was also suggested that pbrbp1 may be involved in translational control, similar to homolog RBP. Since the reproductive mother is the starting point of vector mosquito infection, understanding its formation control mechanism is important for the development of transmission prevention methods, but there are still many mysteries and knowledge about the translation control mechanism is scarce. In the future, in addition to more detailed phenotypic analysis and biochemical analysis, by unraveling the network starting from pbrpb1 by searching for target genes and functional analysis using RIP-seq, etc., a part of the mysterious reproductive maternal formation control mechanism Is expected to be clarified.

Project details

Basic Science
Enabling Technologies & Assays
Genetics and Genomics

Apr 2018 — Mar 2020

$19,226

Japan