转录组学分析的最新进展大大提高了我们对疟疾寄生虫发育生物学的整体理解。然而,这些研究大多依赖于多年前适应体外培养的实验室菌株(LS),并且尚未评估在人群中循环的临床分离株(CI)的转录组。在这项研究中,RNA-seq用于比较来自三个短期培养CI的中期配子细胞与来自NF54参考实验室菌株的配子细胞的整体转录组。核心转录组似乎在CI-和LS衍生的配子细胞制剂之间是一致的,但也观察到一些重要的差异。大多数配子体细胞特异性基因(43/53)在CI衍生的配子体细胞中的表达高于LS衍生的配子体细胞。但是K-means聚类分析表明,参与鞭毛和微管过程(运动/运动性)的基因在两组中都更丰富,尽管它们之间存在一些差异。此外,与其他两种CI衍生的配子细胞相比,来自oneCI描述为II组配子细胞(CI:GGII)的配子细胞显示出降低的配子细胞特异性基因表达形式的基因表达变异(CI配子细胞I组,CI:GGI),尽管我们研究中使用的混合发育阶段是一个潜在的混淆者,仅通过包含每个CI的多个重复而部分缓解。总的来说,我们的研究表明,相对于恶性疟原虫NF54参考菌株,来自CI的中期配子细胞的基因表达谱可能存在细微差异.因此,有必要部署产生配子细胞的临床寄生虫分离株,以充分了解在寄生虫性阶段隔离发育过程中可能发生的基因表达策略的多样性.重要性已知恶性疟原虫成熟配子细胞隔离外周循环进入骨髓直至成熟。阻断配子细胞隔离可以防止疟疾从人类传播给蚊子,但是大多数研究旨在利用长期适应的实验室细胞系而不是临床分离株来了解配子细胞的发育。这是我们理解性阶段的一个特殊问题,已知在适应长期文化的过程中会迅速减少,这意味着许多LS不能产生可传播的配子细胞。使用RNA-seq,我们调查了来自三个临床分离株和一个参考菌株(NF54)的中期配子细胞的整体转录组.这确定了CI的未成熟配子细胞和恶性疟原虫的NF54参考菌株之间基因表达谱的重要差异,提示在临床分离株中增加对配子细胞生成的投资。我们的转录组数据强调了临床分离株在研究形态学中的应用,配子细胞的细胞特征和分子生物学。
Our overall understanding of the developmental biology of malaria parasites has been greatly enhanced by recent advances in transcriptomic analysis. However, most of these investigations rely on laboratory strains (LS) that were adapted into in vitro culture many years ago, and the transcriptomes of clinical isolates (CI) circulating in human populations have not been assessed. In this study, RNA-seq was used to compare the global transcriptome of mid-stage
gametocytes derived from three short-term cultured CI, with
gametocytes derived from the NF54 reference laboratory strain. The core transcriptome appeared to be consistent between CI- and LS-derived gametocyte preparations, but some important differences were also observed. A majority of gametocyte-specific genes (43/53) appear to have relatively higher expression in CI-derived gametocytes than in LS-derived gametocytes, but a K-means clustering analysis showed that genes involved in flagellum- and microtubule-based processes (movement/motility) were more abundant in both groups, albeit with some differences between them. In addition,
gametocytes from one CI described as CI group II
gametocytes (CI:GGII) showed gene expression variation in the form of reduced gametocyte-specific gene expression compared to the other two CI-derived gametocytes (CI gametocyte group I, CI:GGI), although the mixed developmental stages used in our study is a potential confounder, only partially mitigated by the inclusion of multiple replicates for each CI. Overall, our study suggests that there may be subtle differences in the gene expression profiles of mid-stage gametocytes from CI relative to the NF54 reference strain of Plasmodium falciparum. Thus, it is necessary to deploy gametocyte-producing clinical parasite isolates to fully understand the diversity of gene expression strategies that may occur during the sequestered development of parasite sexual stages. IMPORTANCE Maturing
gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum are known to sequester away from peripheral circulation into the bone marrow until they are mature. Blocking gametocyte sequestration can prevent malaria transmission from humans to mosquitoes, but most studies aim to understand gametocyte development utilizing long-term adapted laboratory lines instead of clinical isolates. This is a particular issue for our understanding of the sexual stages, which are known to decrease rapidly during adaptation to long-term culture, meaning that many LS are unable to produce transmissible gametocytes. Using RNA-seq, we investigated the global transcriptome of mid-stage gametocytes derived from three clinical isolates and a reference strain (NF54). This identified important differences in gene expression profiles between immature
gametocytes of CI and the NF54 reference strain of P. falciparum, suggesting increased investment in gametocytogenesis in clinical isolates. Our transcriptomic data highlight the use of clinical isolates in studying the morphological, cellular features and molecular biology of gametocytes.