SummaryPlasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite responsible for the most severe forms of human malaria. All the clinical symptoms and pathological changes seen during human infection are caused by the asexual blood stages of Plasmodium. Within host red blood cells, the parasite undergoes enormous developmental changes during its maturation. In order to analyse the expression of genes during intraerythrocytic development, DNA microarrays were constructed and probed with stage-specific cDNA. Developmental upregulation of specific mRNAs was found to cluster into functional groups and revealed a co-ordinated programme of gene expression. Those involved in protein synthesis (ribosomal proteins, translation factors) peaked early in development, followed by those involved in metabolism, most dramatically glycolysis genes. Adhesion/ invasion genes were turned on later in the maturation process. At the end of intraerythrocytic development (late schizogony), there was a general shut-off of gene expression, although a small set of genes, including a number of protein kinases, were turned on at this stage. Nearly all genes showed some regulation over the course of development. A handful of genes remained constant and should be useful for normalizing mRNA levels between stages. These data will facilitate functional analysis of the P. falciparum genome and will help to identify genes with a critical role in parasite progression and multiplication in the human host.
In addition to sustaining an exponentially increasing rate of gene finding (Collins 1995), yeast artificial chromosome/sequence-tagged site (STS/YAC)-based maps (Burke et al. 1987;Olson et al. 1989) have begun to reveal additional features of chromosome structure and dynamics. For example, during the development of maps for subportions of the X chromosome, the existence of a second "pseudoautosomal" region at the Xq terminus of the chromosome was demonstrated (Freije and Schlessinger 1992;Li and Hamer 1995), followed by the discovery that the region shows a unique phenomenon of gene inactivation on both the X and Y homologs (D'Esposito et al. 1996). In another instance, it was shown that a cluster of genes in a delimited segment of XpI 1 escape X inactivation (Miller et al. 1995). As the density of markers across the chromosome has increased beyond the 100-kb resolution goal suggested for the 1Corresponding author. E-MAIL davids@sequencer.wustl.edu; FAX (314) 362-3203."genome initiative," additional features are revealed, as described here.The average inter-STS distance of-75 kb has been achieved by the placement of 2091 STSs on cognate YACs across the 160 Mb of the chromosome. Collectively, the STSs sample -1% of Xspecific sequences. About half of the STSs (962) are made from YAC insert ends (Kere et al. 1992), and another 592 are from randomly derived unique Xchromosomal sequences. However, the STSs also include 97 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and 190 gene-specific STSs from known genes, as well as 192 dinucleotide and 38 tri-and tetranucleotide repeat markers that detect polymorphism. As a result, the YAC/STS map can be integrated with transcriptional and genetic maps. RESULTS Mapping Strategy and PerformanceWe used a modified "all-walking" form of STS content mapping (Kere et al. 1992) in which STSs were
Leishmania are important protozoan pathogens of humans in temperate and tropical regions. The study of gene expression during the infectious cycle, in mutants or after environmental or chemical stimuli, is a powerful approach towards understanding parasite virulence and the development of control measures. Like other trypanosomatids, Leishmania gene expression is mediated by a polycistronic transcriptional process that places increased emphasis on post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms including RNA processing and protein translation. With the impending completion of the Leishmania genome, global approaches surveying mRNA and protein expression are now feasible. Our laboratory has developed the Drosophila transposon mariner as a tool for trapping Leishmania genes and studying their regulation in the form of protein fusions; a classic approach in other microbes that can be termed 'proteogenomics'. Similarly, we have developed reagents and approaches for the creation of DNA microarrays, which permit the measurement of RNA abundance across the parasite genome. Progress in these areas promises to greatly increase our understanding of global mechanisms of gene regulation at both mRNA and protein levels, and to lead to the identification of many candidate genes involved in virulence.
Genotyping is an important tool for epidemiological and population genetic studies in protozoan parasites. The most commonly used method for genotyping is polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). However, PCR-RFLP analysis is labor intensive, and only a proportion of the SNPs are recognized by currently available restriction enzymes. Here, we have developed a more efficient microarray-based method to genotype SNPs in the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. This method is sensitive, accurate, and capable of analyzing multiple SNPs simultaneously in a high-throughput format.
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