Mechanism of the tropism switching of monkey malaria to human using Plasmodium knowlesi mutator line

The infectivity to and pathogenicity of Plasmodium knowlesi, a causative agent of monkey malaria, in human is varied depending on the endemic areas, but the molecular basis to determine this difference is not clearly understood. Because in vitro culture-adapted P. knowlesi does not grow efficiently with human erythrocytes, the hypothesis was that this growth phenotype may explain the observation in the endemic areas. To identify P. knowlesi factor(s) that enable parasites to grow with human erythrocytes, mutator parasite lines were initiated in which mutation rate is artificially increased by genetic manipulation. During the supported period, two culture-adapted P. knowlesi lines were established that were able to be maintained for long time with rhesus monkey erythrocytes, plasmids were constructed to generate mutator lines, and transfection system to P. knowlesi was developed in the laboratory. Thus, the infrastructure to generate P. knowlesi mutator lines were established.

Project Details

Basic Science

Apr 2013 — Mar 2015

$37,445

Japan

Plasmodium knowlesi