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Ford A, Kepple D, Abagero BR, Connors J, Pearson R, Auburn S, Getachew S, Ford C, Gunalan K, Miller LH, Janies DA, Rayner JC, Yan G, Yewhalaw D, Lo E. Whole genome sequencing of Plasmodium vivax isolates reveals frequent sequence and structural polymorphisms in erythrocyte binding genes. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008234. [PMID: 33044985 PMCID: PMC7581005 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2020] [Revised: 10/22/2020] [Accepted: 08/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax malaria is much less common in Africa than the rest of the world because the parasite relies primarily on the Duffy antigen/chemokine receptor (DARC) to invade human erythrocytes, and the majority of Africans are Duffy negative. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the reporting of P. vivax cases in Africa, with a high number of them being in Duffy negative individuals, potentially indicating P. vivax has evolved an alternative invasion mechanism that can overcome Duffy negativity. Here, we analyzed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and copy number variation (CNV) in Whole Genome Sequence (WGS) data from 44 P. vivax samples isolated from symptomatic malaria patients in southwestern Ethiopia, where both Duffy positive and Duffy negative individuals are found. A total of 123,711 SNPs were detected, of which 22.7% were nonsynonymous and 77.3% were synonymous mutations. The largest number of SNPs were detected on chromosomes 9 (24,007 SNPs; 19.4% of total) and 10 (16,852 SNPs, 13.6% of total). There were particularly high levels of polymorphism in erythrocyte binding gene candidates including merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) and merozoite surface protein 3 (MSP3.5, MSP3.85 and MSP3.9). Two genes, MAEBL and MSP3.8 related to immunogenicity and erythrocyte binding function were detected with significant signals of positive selection. Variation in gene copy number was also concentrated in genes involved in host-parasite interactions, including the expansion of the Duffy binding protein gene (PvDBP) on chromosome 6 and MSP3.11 on chromosome 10. Based on the phylogeny constructed from the whole genome sequences, the expansion of these genes was an independent process among the P. vivax lineages in Ethiopia. We further inferred transmission patterns of P. vivax infections among study sites and showed various levels of gene flow at a small geographical scale. The genomic features of P. vivax provided baseline data for future comparison with those in Duffy-negative individuals and allowed us to develop a panel of informative Single Nucleotide Polymorphic markers diagnostic at a micro-geographical scale. Plasmodium vivax is the most geographically widespread parasite species that causes malaria in humans. Although it occurs in Africa as a member of a mix of Plasmodium species, P. vivax is dominant in other parts of the world outside of Africa (e.g., Brazil). It was previously thought that most African populations were immune to P. vivax infections due to the absence of Duffy antigen chemokine receptor (DARC) gene expression required for erythrocyte invasion. However, several recent reports have indicated the emergence and potential spread of P. vivax across human populations in Africa. Compared to Southeast Asia and South America where P. vivax is highly endemic, data on polymorphisms in erythrocyte binding gene candidates of P. vivax from Africa is limited. Filling this knowlege gap is critical for identifying functional genes in erythrocyte invasion, biomarkers for tracking the P. vivax isolates from Africa, as well as potential gene targets for vaccine development. This paper examined the level of genetic polymorphisms in a panel of 43 potential erythrocyte binding protein genes based on whole genome sequences and described transmission patterns of P. vivax infections from different study sites in Ethiopia based on the genetic variants. Our analyses showed that chromosomes 9 and 10 of the P. vivax genomes isolated in Ethiopia had the most high-quality genetic polymorphisms. Among all erythrocyte binding protein gene candidates, the merozoite surface proteins 1 and merozoite surface protein 3 showed high levels of polymorphism. MAEBL and MSP3.8 related to immunogenicity and erythrocyte binding function were detected with significant signals of positive selection. The expansion of the Duffy binding protein and merozoite surface protein 3 gene copies was an independent process among the P. vivax lineages in Ethiopia. Various levels of gene flow were observed even at a smaller geographical scale. Our study provided baseline data for future comparison with P. vivax in Duffy negative individuals and help develop a panel of genetic markers that are informative at a micro-geographical scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony Ford
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
- * E-mail: (AF); (GY); (EL)
| | - Daniel Kepple
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
| | - Beka Raya Abagero
- Tropical Infectious Disease Research Center, Jimma University, Ethiopia
| | - Jordan Connors
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
| | - Richard Pearson
- Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United States of America
| | - Sarah Auburn
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Sisay Getachew
- College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Colby Ford
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
| | - Karthigayan Gunalan
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, NIAID/NIH, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Louis H. Miller
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, NIAID/NIH, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Daniel A. Janies
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
| | - Julian C. Rayner
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 OXY, United Kingdom
| | - Guiyun Yan
- Program in Public Health, University of California at Irvine, United States of America
- * E-mail: (AF); (GY); (EL)
| | | | - Eugenia Lo
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America
- * E-mail: (AF); (GY); (EL)
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Siegel SV, Chappell L, Hostetler JB, Amaratunga C, Suon S, Böhme U, Berriman M, Fairhurst RM, Rayner JC. Analysis of Plasmodium vivax schizont transcriptomes from field isolates reveals heterogeneity of expression of genes involved in host-parasite interactions. Sci Rep 2020; 10:16667. [PMID: 33028892 PMCID: PMC7541449 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73562-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax gene regulation remains difficult to study due to the lack of a robust in vitro culture method, low parasite densities in peripheral circulation and asynchronous parasite development. We adapted an RNA-seq protocol “DAFT-seq” to sequence the transcriptome of four P. vivax field isolates that were cultured for a short period ex vivo before using a density gradient for schizont enrichment. Transcription was detected from 78% of the PvP01 reference genome, despite being schizont-enriched samples. This extensive data was used to define thousands of 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions, some of which overlapped with neighbouring transcripts, and to improve the gene models of 352 genes, including identifying 20 novel gene transcripts. This dataset has also significantly increased the known amount of heterogeneity between P. vivax schizont transcriptomes from individual patients. The majority of genes found to be differentially expressed between the isolates lack Plasmodium falciparum homologs and are predicted to be involved in host-parasite interactions, with an enrichment in reticulocyte binding proteins, merozoite surface proteins and exported proteins with unknown function. An improved understanding of the diversity within P. vivax transcriptomes will be essential for the prioritisation of novel vaccine targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sasha V Siegel
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Lia Chappell
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Jessica B Hostetler
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK.,Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.,National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Chanaki Amaratunga
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.,Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bankgok, Thailand.,Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Seila Suon
- National Center for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria Control, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
| | - Ulrike Böhme
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Matthew Berriman
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Rick M Fairhurst
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.,AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, 20878, USA
| | - Julian C Rayner
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK. .,Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0XY, UK.
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53
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de Oliveira TC, Corder RM, Early A, Rodrigues PT, Ladeia-Andrade S, Alves JMP, Neafsey DE, Ferreira MU. Population genomics reveals the expansion of highly inbred Plasmodium vivax lineages in the main malaria hotspot of Brazil. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008808. [PMID: 33112884 PMCID: PMC7592762 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Plasmodium vivax is a neglected human malaria parasite that causes significant morbidity in the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, and the Western Pacific. Population genomic approaches remain little explored to map local and regional transmission pathways of P. vivax across the main endemic sites in the Americas, where great progress has been made towards malaria elimination over the past decades. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We analyze 38 patient-derived P. vivax genome sequences from Mâncio Lima (ML)-the Amazonian malaria hotspot next to the Brazil-Peru border-and 24 sequences from two other sites in Acre State, Brazil, a country that contributes 23% of malaria cases in the Americas. We show that the P. vivax population of ML is genetically diverse (π = 4.7 × 10-4), with a high polymorphism particularly in genes encoding proteins putatively involved in red blood cell invasion. Paradoxically, however, parasites display strong genome-wide linkage disequilibrium, being fragmented into discrete lineages that are remarkably stable across time and space, with only occasional recombination between them. Using identity-by-descent approaches, we identified a large cluster of closely related sequences that comprises 16 of 38 genomes sampled in ML over 26 months. Importantly, we found significant ancestry sharing between parasites at a large geographic distance, consistent with substantial gene flow between regional P. vivax populations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE We have characterized the sustained expansion of highly inbred P. vivax lineages in a malaria hotspot that can seed regional transmission. Potential source populations in hotspots represent a priority target for malaria elimination in the Amazon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thaís Crippa de Oliveira
- Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo M. Corder
- Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Angela Early
- Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Departament of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Priscila T. Rodrigues
- Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Simone Ladeia-Andrade
- Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - João Marcelo P. Alves
- Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Daniel E. Neafsey
- Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Departament of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Marcelo U. Ferreira
- Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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The Absence of C-5 DNA Methylation in Leishmania donovani Allows DNA Enrichment from Complex Samples. Microorganisms 2020; 8:microorganisms8081252. [PMID: 32824654 PMCID: PMC7463849 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8081252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Cytosine C5 methylation is an important epigenetic control mechanism in a wide array of eukaryotic organisms and generally carried out by proteins of the C-5 DNA methyltransferase family (DNMTs). In several protozoans, the status of this mechanism remains elusive, such as in Leishmania, the causative agent of the disease leishmaniasis in humans and a wide array of vertebrate animals. In this work, we showed that the Leishmania donovani genome contains a C-5 DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) from the DNMT6 subfamily, whose function is still unclear, and verified its expression at the RNA level. We created viable overexpressor and knock-out lines of this enzyme and characterized their genome-wide methylation patterns using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, together with promastigote and amastigote control lines. Interestingly, despite the DNMT6 presence, we found that methylation levels were equal to or lower than 0.0003% at CpG sites, 0.0005% at CHG sites, and 0.0126% at CHH sites at the genomic scale. As none of the methylated sites were retained after manual verification, we conclude that there is no evidence for DNA methylation in this species. We demonstrated that this difference in DNA methylation between the parasite (no detectable DNA methylation) and the vertebrate host (DNA methylation) allowed enrichment of parasite vs. host DNA using methyl-CpG-binding domain columns, readily available in commercial kits. As such, we depleted methylated DNA from mixes of Leishmania promastigote and amastigote DNA with human DNA, resulting in average Leishmania:human enrichments from 62× up to 263×. These results open a promising avenue for unmethylated DNA enrichment as a pre-enrichment step before sequencing Leishmania clinical samples.
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55
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Brashear AM, Huckaby AC, Fan Q, Dillard LJ, Hu Y, Li Y, Zhao Y, Wang Z, Cao Y, Miao J, Guler JL, Cui L. New Plasmodium vivax Genomes From the China-Myanmar Border. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:1930. [PMID: 32849480 PMCID: PMC7432439 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01930] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax is increasingly the dominant species of malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which is pursuing regional malaria elimination. P. vivax lineages in the GMS are poorly characterized. Currently, P. vivax reference genomes are scarce due to difficulties in culturing the parasite and lack of high-quality samples. In addition, P. vivax is incredibly diverse, necessitating the procurement of reference genomes from different geographical regions. Here we present four new P. vivax draft genomes assembled de novo from clinical samples collected in the China-Myanmar border area. We demonstrate comparable length and content to existing genomes, with the majority of structural variation occurring around subtelomeric regions and exported proteins, which we corroborated with detection of copy number variations in these regions. We predicted peptides from all PIR gene subfamilies, except for PIR D. We confirmed that proteins classically labeled as PIR D family members are not identifiable by PIR motifs, and actually bear stronger resemblance to DUF (domain of unknown function) family DUF3671, potentially pointing to a new, closely related gene family. Further, phylogenetic analyses of MSP7 genes showed high variability within the MSP7-B family compared to MSP7-A and -C families, and the result was comparable to that from whole genome analyses. The new genome assemblies serve as a resource for studying P. vivax within the GMS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Awtum M. Brashear
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Adam C. Huckaby
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Qi Fan
- Dalian Institute of Science and Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Luke J. Dillard
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Yubing Hu
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Yuling Li
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Yan Zhao
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Zenglei Wang
- NHC Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens, Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Yaming Cao
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Jun Miao
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Jennifer L. Guler
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Liwang Cui
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States
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56
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Genomic and transcriptomic evidence for descent from Plasmodium and loss of blood schizogony in Hepatocystis parasites from naturally infected red colobus monkeys. PLoS Pathog 2020; 16:e1008717. [PMID: 32745123 PMCID: PMC7425995 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2019] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Hepatocystis is a genus of single-celled parasites infecting, amongst other hosts, monkeys, bats and squirrels. Although thought to have descended from malaria parasites (Plasmodium spp.), Hepatocystis spp. are thought not to undergo replication in the blood–the part of the Plasmodium life cycle which causes the symptoms of malaria. Furthermore, Hepatocystis is transmitted by biting midges, not mosquitoes. Comparative genomics of Hepatocystis and Plasmodium species therefore presents an opportunity to better understand some of the most important aspects of malaria parasite biology. We were able to generate a draft genome for Hepatocystis sp. using DNA sequencing reads from the blood of a naturally infected red colobus monkey. We provide robust phylogenetic support for Hepatocystis sp. as a sister group to Plasmodium parasites infecting rodents. We show transcriptomic support for a lack of replication in the blood and genomic support for a complete loss of a family of genes involved in red blood cell invasion. Our analyses highlight the rapid evolution of genes involved in parasite vector stages, revealing genes that may be critical for interactions between malaria parasites and mosquitoes. Hepatocystis parasites are single-celled organisms, closely related to the Plasmodium species which cause malaria. But Hepatocystis are distinct–unlike Plasmodium they are thought not to replicate in the blood and cause little or no disease in their mammalian hosts. They are transmitted from one host to the next, not by mosquitoes, but by biting midges. In this study we generated a genome sequence for Hepatocystis–the first time this data has ever been produced and analysed for this species. We compared genome sequences of Hepatocystis and Plasmodium, confirming that Hepatocystis is descended from Plasmodium. We strengthened support for the absence of replication in the blood and, in line with this finding, discovered that genes involved in interaction with red blood cells have been lost in Hepatocystis. Our analyses revealed rapid evolution of genes which are active when the parasite is in the insect vector, highlighting those which might be important for understanding interaction between malaria parasites and mosquitoes. Hepatocystis has a fascinating evolutionary story and is a powerful comparator for understanding malaria parasite biology.
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Han JH, Cho JS, Ong JJY, Park JH, Nyunt MH, Sutanto E, Trimarsanto H, Petros B, Aseffa A, Getachew S, Sriprawat K, Anstey NM, Grigg MJ, Barber BE, William T, Qi G, Liu Y, Pearson RD, Auburn S, Price RN, Nosten F, Rénia L, Russell B, Han ET. Genetic diversity and neutral selection in Plasmodium vivax erythrocyte binding protein correlates with patient antigenicity. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008202. [PMID: 32645098 PMCID: PMC7347095 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2019] [Accepted: 03/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread and difficult to treat cause of human malaria. The development of vaccines against the blood stages of P. vivax remains a key objective for the control and elimination of vivax malaria. Erythrocyte binding-like (EBL) protein family members such as Duffy binding protein (PvDBP) are of critical importance to erythrocyte invasion and have been the major target for vivax malaria vaccine development. In this study, we focus on another member of EBL protein family, P. vivax erythrocyte binding protein (PvEBP). PvEBP was first identified in Cambodian (C127) field isolates and has subsequently been showed its preferences for binding reticulocytes which is directly inhibited by antibodies. We analysed PvEBP sequence from 316 vivax clinical isolates from eight countries including China (n = 4), Ethiopia (n = 24), Malaysia (n = 53), Myanmar (n = 10), Papua New Guinea (n = 16), Republic of Korea (n = 10), Thailand (n = 174), and Vietnam (n = 25). PvEBP gene exhibited four different phenotypic clusters based on the insertion/deletion (indels) variation. PvEBP-RII (179-479 aa.) showed highest polymorphism similar to other EBL family proteins in various Plasmodium species. Whereas even though PvEBP-RIII-V (480-690 aa.) was the most conserved domain, that showed strong neutral selection pressure for gene purifying with significant population expansion. Antigenicity of both of PvEBP-RII (16.1%) and PvEBP-RIII-V (21.5%) domains were comparatively lower than other P. vivax antigen which expected antigens associated with merozoite invasion. Total IgG recognition level of PvEBP-RII was stronger than PvEBP-RIII-V domain, whereas total IgG inducing level was stronger in PvEBP-RIII-V domain. These results suggest that PvEBP-RII is mainly recognized by natural IgG for innate protection, whereas PvEBP-RIII-V stimulates IgG production activity by B-cell for acquired immunity. Overall, the low antigenicity of both regions in patients with vivax malaria likely reflects genetic polymorphism for strong positive selection in PvEBP-RII and purifying selection in PvEBP-RIII-V domain. These observations pose challenging questions to the selection of EBP and point out the importance of immune pressure and polymorphism required for inclusion of PvEBP as a vaccine candidate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin-Hee Han
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- Department of Medical Environmental Biology and Tropical Medicine, School of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea
| | - Jee-Sun Cho
- Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
- Jenner Institute, Old Road Campus Research Building, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Jessica J. Y. Ong
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Ji-Hoon Park
- Department of Medical Environmental Biology and Tropical Medicine, School of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea
| | | | - Edwin Sutanto
- Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Jakarta, Indonesia
| | | | - Beyene Petros
- College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Abraham Aseffa
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Jimma Road, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Sisay Getachew
- College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Jimma Road, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Kanlaya Sriprawat
- Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
| | - Nicholas M. Anstey
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
| | - Matthew J. Grigg
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
- Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Bridget E. Barber
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
- Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Timothy William
- Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
- Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia
- Gleneagles Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Gao Qi
- Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
| | - Yaobao Liu
- Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
- Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
| | - Richard D. Pearson
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah Auburn
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford Old Road Campus, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Ric N. Price
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford Old Road Campus, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Francois Nosten
- Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford Old Road Campus, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Laurent Rénia
- Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
| | - Bruce Russell
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Eun-Taek Han
- Department of Medical Environmental Biology and Tropical Medicine, School of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea
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Sà JM, Cannon MV, Caleon RL, Wellems TE, Serre D. Single-cell transcription analysis of Plasmodium vivax blood-stage parasites identifies stage- and species-specific profiles of expression. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000711. [PMID: 32365102 PMCID: PMC7224573 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2019] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 04/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum, the parasites responsible for most human malaria worldwide, exhibit striking biological differences, which have important clinical consequences. Unfortunately, P. vivax, unlike P. falciparum, cannot be cultivated continuously in vitro, which limits our understanding of its biology and, consequently, our ability to effectively control vivax malaria. Here, we describe single-cell gene expression profiles of 9,215 P. vivax parasites from bloodstream infections of Aotus and Saimiri monkeys. Our results show that transcription of most P. vivax genes occurs during short periods of the intraerythrocytic cycle and that this pattern of gene expression is conserved in other Plasmodium species. However, we also identify a strikingly high proportion of species-specific transcripts in late schizonts, possibly associated with the specificity of erythrocyte invasion. Our findings provide new and robust markers of blood-stage parasites, including some that are specific to the elusive P. vivax male gametocytes, and will be useful for analyzing gene expression data from laboratory and field samples. Analysis of individual Plasmodium vivax parasites reveals the tight control of the expression of most genes during the intra-erythrocytic cycle and the differentiation of male and female gametocytes, and highlights differences between the development of P. vivax and P. falciparum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliana M. Sà
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Matthew V. Cannon
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Ramoncito L. Caleon
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Thomas E. Wellems
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - David Serre
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Arévalo-Pinzón G, Garzón-Ospina D, Pulido FA, Bermúdez M, Forero-Rodríguez J, Rodríguez-Mesa XM, Reyes-Guarín LP, Suárez CF, Patarroyo MA. Plasmodium vivax Cell Traversal Protein for Ookinetes and Sporozoites (CelTOS) Functionally Restricted Regions Are Involved in Specific Host-Pathogen Interactions. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2020; 10:119. [PMID: 32266169 PMCID: PMC7105572 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Following the injection of Plasmodium sporozoites by a female Anopheles mosquito into the dermis, they become engaged on a long journey to hepatic tissue where they must migrate through different types of cell to become established in parasitophorous vacuoles in hepatocytes. Studies have shown that proteins such as cell traversal protein for Plasmodium ookinetes and sporozoites (CelTOS) play a crucial role in cell-traversal ability. Although CelTOS has been extensively studied in various species and included in pre-clinical assays it remains unknown which P. vivax CelTOS (PvCelTOS) regions are key in its interaction with traversed or target cells (Kupffer or hepatocytes) and what type of pressure, association and polymorphism these important regions could have to improve their candidacy as important vaccine antigens. This work has described producing a recombinant PvCelTOS which was recognized by ~30% P. vivax-infected individuals, thereby confirming its ability for inducing a natural immune response. PvCelTOS' genetic diversity in Colombia and its ability to interact with HeLa (traversal cell) and/or HepG2 cell (target cell) external membrane have been assessed. One region in the PvCelTOS amino-terminal region and another in its C-terminus were seen to be participating in host-pathogen interactions. These regions had important functional constraint signals (ω < 0.3 and several sites under negative selection) and were able to inhibit specific rPvCelTOS binding to HeLa cells. This led to suggesting that sequences between aa 41-60 (40833) and 141-160 (40838) represent promising candidates for an anti-P. vivax subunit-based vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Arévalo-Pinzón
- Receptor-Ligand Department, Fundacion Instituto de Inmunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia.,School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia
| | - Diego Garzón-Ospina
- PhD Programme in Biomedical and Biological Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia
| | - Fredy A Pulido
- Receptor-Ligand Department, Fundacion Instituto de Inmunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Maritza Bermúdez
- Receptor-Ligand Department, Fundacion Instituto de Inmunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Johanna Forero-Rodríguez
- Molecular Biology and Immunology Department, Fundacion Instituto de Immunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Xandy M Rodríguez-Mesa
- Molecular Biology and Immunology Department, Fundacion Instituto de Immunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Leidy P Reyes-Guarín
- Molecular Biology and Immunology Department, Fundacion Instituto de Immunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Carlos F Suárez
- School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia.,Biomathematics Department, Fundacion Instituto de Immunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
| | - Manuel A Patarroyo
- School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia.,Molecular Biology and Immunology Department, Fundacion Instituto de Immunologia de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia
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60
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Rougeron V, Elguero E, Arnathau C, Acuña Hidalgo B, Durand P, Houze S, Berry A, Zakeri S, Haque R, Shafiul Alam M, Nosten F, Severini C, Gebru Woldearegai T, Mordmüller B, Kremsner PG, González-Cerón L, Fontecha G, Gamboa D, Musset L, Legrand E, Noya O, Pumpaibool T, Harnyuttanakorn P, Lekweiry KM, Mohamad Albsheer M, Mahdi Abdel Hamid M, Boukary AOMS, Trape JF, Renaud F, Prugnolle F. Human Plasmodium vivax diversity, population structure and evolutionary origin. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008072. [PMID: 32150544 PMCID: PMC7082039 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2019] [Revised: 03/19/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
More than 200 million malaria clinical cases are reported each year due to Plasmodium vivax, the most widespread Plasmodium species in the world. This species has been neglected and understudied for a long time, due to its lower mortality in comparison with Plasmodium falciparum. A renewed interest has emerged in the past decade with the discovery of antimalarial drug resistance and of severe and even fatal human cases. Nonetheless, today there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the population genetics and evolutionary history of P. vivax, particularly because of a lack of genetic data from Africa. To address these gaps, we genotyped 14 microsatellite loci in 834 samples obtained from 28 locations in 20 countries from around the world. We discuss the worldwide population genetic structure and diversity and the evolutionary origin of P. vivax in the world and its introduction into the Americas. This study demonstrates the importance of conducting genome-wide analyses of P. vivax in order to unravel its complex evolutionary history. Among the five Plasmodium species infecting humans, P. vivax is the most prevalent parasite outside Africa. To date, there has been less research on this species than for Plasmodium falciparum, a more lethal species, principally because of the lack of an in vitro culture system and also because P. vivax is considered relatively benign. Nevertheless, P. vivax is responsible for severe and incapacitating clinical symptoms with significant effects on human health. The emergence of new drug resistance and the discovery of severe and even fatal cases due to P. vivax question the benign status of P. vivax malaria. In recent years, there has been increased interest in characterizing the distribution of genetic variation in P. vivax. However, these studies either generated genetic information from a regional geographic scale or combine genetic datasets generated in different molecular platforms, which is known to generate biased results. In this study, we used a single genotyping platform to genotype 14 microsatellite markers in 834 samples of P. vivax obtained from 28 locations in 20 countries from around the world, including several populations from East and West Africa. We discuss the worldwide population genetic structure and the evolutionary origins of P. vivax, as well as its introduction into the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginie Rougeron
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
- * E-mail: ,
| | - Eric Elguero
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - Céline Arnathau
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - Beatriz Acuña Hidalgo
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - Patrick Durand
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - Sandrine Houze
- Service de Parasitologie-mycologie CNR du Paludisme, AP-HP Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France
| | - Antoine Berry
- Centre de Physiopathologie de Toulouse-Purpan (CPTP), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) UMR1043, CNRS UMR5282, Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier, F-31300 Toulouse, France
- Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Institut Fédératif de Biologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse, F-31300 Toulouse, France
| | - Sedigheh Zakeri
- Malaria and Vector Research Group (MVRG), Biotechnology Research Center (BRC), Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Rashidul Haque
- Emerging Infections & Parasitology Laboratory, icddr,b, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mohammad Shafiul Alam
- Emerging Infections & Parasitology Laboratory, icddr,b, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - François Nosten
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health,Oxford, United Kingdom
- Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
| | - Carlo Severini
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Tamirat Gebru Woldearegai
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Medical and Health Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
| | - Benjamin Mordmüller
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Lilia González-Cerón
- Regional Centre of Research in Public Health, National Institute of Public Health, Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
| | - Gustavo Fontecha
- Microbiology Research Institute, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
| | - Dionicia Gamboa
- Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander Von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, AP, Lima, Peru
| | - Lise Musset
- Unit, Institut Pasteur de Guyane, BP6010, French Guiana
| | - Eric Legrand
- Malaria Genetic and Resistance Group, Biology of Host-Parasite Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Oscar Noya
- Centro para Estudios Sobre Malaria, Instituto de Altos Estudios en Salud “Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón”, Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Salud and Instituto de Medicina Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Tepanata Pumpaibool
- Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Malaria Research Programme, College of Public Health Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Pingchai Harnyuttanakorn
- Malaria Research Programme, College of Public Health Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Khadijetou Mint Lekweiry
- UR-Génomes et milieux, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université de Nouakchott Al-Aasriya, Mauritania
| | - Musab Mohamad Albsheer
- Department of Parasitology and Medical Entomology, Medical Campus, University of Khartoum, Sudan
| | | | - Ali Ould Mohamed Salem Boukary
- UR-Génomes et milieux, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université de Nouakchott Al-Aasriya, Mauritania
- Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, AP-HM, SSA, VITROME, Marseille, France
| | - Jean-François Trape
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - François Renaud
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
| | - Franck Prugnolle
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (Université de Montpellier-CNRS-IRD), CREES, Montpellier, France
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Plasmodium vivax transcriptional profiling of low input cryopreserved isolates through the intraerythrocytic development cycle. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008104. [PMID: 32119669 PMCID: PMC7067476 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2019] [Revised: 03/12/2020] [Accepted: 01/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Approximately one-third of the global population is at risk of Plasmodium vivax infection, and an estimated 7.51 million cases were reported in 2017. Although, P. vivax research is currently limited by the lack of a robust continuous in vitro culture system for this parasite, recent work optimizing short-term ex vivo culture of P. vivax from cryopreserved isolates has facilitated quantitative assays on synchronous parasites. Pairing this improved culture system with low-input Smart-seq2 RNAseq library preparation, we sought to determine whether transcriptional profiling of P. vivax would provide insight into the differential survival of parasites in different culture media. To this end we probed the transcriptional signature of three different ex vivo P. vivax samples in four different culture media using only 1000 cells for each time point taken during the course of the intraerythrocytic development cycle (IDC). Using this strategy, we achieved similar quality transcriptional data to previously reported P. vivax transcriptomes. We found little effect with varying culture media on parasite transcriptional signatures, identified many novel gametocyte-specific genes from transcriptomes of FACS-isolated gametocytes, and determined invasion ligand expression in schizonts in biological isolates and across the IDC. In total, these data demonstrate the feasibility and utility of P. vivax RNAseq-based transcriptomic studies using minimal biomass input to maximize experimental capacity. Plasmodium vivax is the most prevalent malaria-causing parasite species outside of Sub-Saharan Africa and has many unique and poorly understood biological characteristics that make it particularly challenging to study and combat. Transcriptomic profiling of P. vivax under various conditions has the potential to unlock new experimental abilities and aid in elucidating biology and the development of clinical interventions. However, a lack of a robust in vitro culture system for this parasite has restricted transcriptomic studies to researchers with timely access to fresh human isolates from clinics, which often are in resource-poor settings, as well as nearby, well-equipped laboratories for sample processing. This study aimed to gain insight into the differential survival of P. vivax in various culture media from the parasites transcriptional signature in each media. By implementing low-input RNA library preparation strategies, this study obtains robust transcriptomic data at various parasite development stages and in different culture conditions from just 1000 FACS-purified, P. vivax-infected erythrocytes from viable cryopreserved patient isolates. With these data, we find culture media has little effect on transcriptional profile, we characterize invasion ligand expression across intraerythrocytic development and between clinical isolates, and we define the transcriptome of sexual, transmissible stages of the P. vivax parasite. These results highlight the establishment and utility of a powerful platform for studying the transcriptomic biology of this particularly challenging parasite.
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62
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van Dorp L, Gelabert P, Rieux A, de Manuel M, de-Dios T, Gopalakrishnan S, Carøe C, Sandoval-Velasco M, Fregel R, Olalde I, Escosa R, Aranda C, Huijben S, Mueller I, Marquès-Bonet T, Balloux F, Gilbert MTP, Lalueza-Fox C. Plasmodium vivax Malaria Viewed through the Lens of an Eradicated European Strain. Mol Biol Evol 2020; 37:773-785. [PMID: 31697387 PMCID: PMC7038659 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msz264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The protozoan Plasmodium vivax is responsible for 42% of all cases of malaria outside Africa. The parasite is currently largely restricted to tropical and subtropical latitudes in Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Though, it was historically present in most of Europe before being finally eradicated during the second half of the 20th century. The lack of genomic information on the extinct European lineage has prevented a clear understanding of historical population structuring and past migrations of P. vivax. We used medical microscope slides prepared in 1944 from malaria-affected patients from the Ebro Delta in Spain, one of the last footholds of malaria in Europe, to generate a genome of a European P. vivax strain. Population genetics and phylogenetic analyses placed this strain basal to a cluster including samples from the Americas. This genome allowed us to calibrate a genomic mutation rate for P. vivax, and to estimate the mean age of the last common ancestor between European and American strains to the 15th century. This date points to an introduction of the parasite during the European colonization of the Americas. In addition, we found that some known variants for resistance to antimalarial drugs, including Chloroquine and Sulfadoxine, were already present in this European strain, predating their use. Our results shed light on the evolution of an important human pathogen and illustrate the value of antique medical collections as a resource for retrieving genomic information on pathogens from the past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy van Dorp
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Pere Gelabert
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Adrien Rieux
- CIRAD, UMR PVBMT, St. Pierre de la Réunion, France
| | - Marc de Manuel
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Toni de-Dios
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shyam Gopalakrishnan
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Christian Carøe
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Marcela Sandoval-Velasco
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Rosa Fregel
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Genetics, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain
| | - Iñigo Olalde
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Raül Escosa
- Consorci de Polítiques Ambientals de les Terres de l'Ebre (COPATE), Deltebre, Spain
| | - Carles Aranda
- Servei de Control de Mosquits, Consell Comarcal del Baix Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Silvie Huijben
- School of Life Sciences, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
- ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ivo Mueller
- ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Population Health and Immunity Division, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Tomàs Marquès-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- CNAG-CRG, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - François Balloux
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - M Thomas P Gilbert
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
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63
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Almeida-de-Oliveira NK, Lima-Cury L, de Abreu-Fernandes R, de Rosa Lavigne A, de Pina-Costa A, de Souza Perce-da-Silva D, Catanho M, Brasil P, Daniel-Ribeiro CT, Ferreira-da-Cruz MDF. Extensive genetic diversity of Plasmodium vivax dbp-II in Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest and Brazilian Amazon Basin: evidence of positive selection. Malar J 2020; 19:81. [PMID: 32075659 PMCID: PMC7031913 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-020-03159-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2019] [Accepted: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread human malaria parasite outside Africa and is the predominant parasite in the Americas. Increasing reports of P. vivax disease severity, together with the emergence of drug-resistant strains, underscore the urgency of the development of vaccines against P. vivax. Polymorphisms on DBP-II-gene could act as an immune evasion mechanism and, consequently, limited the vaccine efficacy. This study aimed to investigate the pvdbp-II genetic diversity in two Brazilian regions with different epidemiological patterns: the unstable transmission area in the Atlantic Forest (AF) of Rio de Janeiro and; the fixed malaria-endemic area in Brazilian Amazon (BA). Methods 216 Brazilian P. vivax infected blood samples, diagnosed by microscopic examination and PCR, were investigated. The region flanking pvdbp-II was amplified by PCR and sequenced. Genetic polymorphisms of pvdbp-II were estimated based on the number of segregating sites and nucleotide and haplotype diversities; the degree of differentiation between-regions was evaluated applying Wright’s statistics. Natural selection was calculated using the rate of nonsynonymous per synonymous substitutions with the Z-test, and the evolutionary distance was estimated based on the reconstructed tree. Results 79 samples from AF and 137 from BA were successfully sequenced. The analyses showed 28 polymorphic sites distributed in 21 codons, with only 5% of the samples Salvador 1 type. The highest rates of polymorphic sites were found in B- and T cell epitopes. Unexpectedly, the nucleotide diversity in pvdbp-II was higher in AF (0.01) than in BA (0.008). Among the 28 SNPs detected, 18 are shared between P. vivax isolates from AF and BA regions, but 8 SNPs were exclusively detected in AF—I322S, K371N, E385Q, E385T, K386T, K411N, I419L and I419R—and 2 (N375D and I419M) arose exclusively in BA. These findings could suggest the potential of these geographical clusters as population-specific-signatures that may be useful to track the origin of infections. The sample size should be increased in order to confirm this possibility. Conclusions The results highlight that the pvdbp-II polymorphisms are positively selected by host’s immune pressure. The characterization of pvdbp-II polymorphisms might be useful for designing effective DBP-II-based vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natália Ketrin Almeida-de-Oliveira
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Lidiane Lima-Cury
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Rebecca de Abreu-Fernandes
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Aline de Rosa Lavigne
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Anielle de Pina-Costa
- Laboratório de Pesquisa Clínica em Doenças Febris Agudas, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos (UNIFESO), Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Daiana de Souza Perce-da-Silva
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Marcos Catanho
- Laboratório de Genética Molecular de Microrganismos, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Patrícia Brasil
- Laboratório de Pesquisa Clínica em Doenças Febris Agudas, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Cláudio Tadeu Daniel-Ribeiro
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Maria de Fátima Ferreira-da-Cruz
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. .,Centro de Pesquisa, Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária Reference Laboratory for Malaria in the Extra-Amazonian Region for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, SVS & Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Brashear AM, Roobsoong W, Siddiqui FA, Nguitragool W, Sattabongkot J, López-Uribe MM, Miao J, Cui L. A glance of the blood stage transcriptome of a Southeast Asian Plasmodium ovale isolate. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2019; 13:e0007850. [PMID: 31730621 PMCID: PMC6881071 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2019] [Revised: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 10/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium ovale accounts for a disproportionate number of travel-related malaria cases. This parasite is understudied since there is a reliance on clinical samples. We collected a P. ovale curtisi parasite isolate from a clinical case in western Thailand and performed RNA-seq analysis on the blood stage transcriptomes. Using both de novo assembly and alignment-based methods, we detected the transcripts for 6628 out of 7280 annotated genes. For those lacking evidence of expression, the vast majority belonged to the PIR and STP1 gene families. We identified new splicing patterns for over 2500 genes, and mapped at least one untranslated region for over half of all annotated genes. Our analysis also detected a notable presence of anti-sense transcripts for over 10% of P. ovale curtisi genes. This transcriptomic analysis provides new insights into the blood-stage biology of this neglected parasite.
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Affiliation(s)
- Awtum M. Brashear
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America
| | - Wanlapa Roobsoong
- Mahidol Vivax Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand
| | - Faiza A. Siddiqui
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America
| | - Wang Nguitragool
- Department of Molecular Tropical Medicine and Genetics, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand
| | - Jetsumon Sattabongkot
- Mahidol Vivax Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand
| | - Margarita M. López-Uribe
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Jun Miao
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America
| | - Liwang Cui
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America
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65
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Auburn S, Getachew S, Pearson RD, Amato R, Miotto O, Trimarsanto H, Zhu SJ, Rumaseb A, Marfurt J, Noviyanti R, Grigg MJ, Barber B, William T, Goncalves SM, Drury E, Sriprawat K, Anstey NM, Nosten F, Petros B, Aseffa A, McVean G, Kwiatkowski DP, Price RN. Genomic Analysis of Plasmodium vivax in Southern Ethiopia Reveals Selective Pressures in Multiple Parasite Mechanisms. J Infect Dis 2019; 220:1738-1749. [PMID: 30668735 PMCID: PMC6804337 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The Horn of Africa harbors the largest reservoir of Plasmodium vivax in the continent. Most of sub-Saharan Africa has remained relatively vivax-free due to a high prevalence of the human Duffy-negative trait, but the emergence of strains able to invade Duffy-negative reticulocytes poses a major public health threat. We undertook the first population genomic investigation of P. vivax from the region, comparing the genomes of 24 Ethiopian isolates against data from Southeast Asia to identify important local adaptions. The prevalence of the Duffy binding protein amplification in Ethiopia was 79%, potentially reflecting adaptation to Duffy negativity. There was also evidence of selection in a region upstream of the chloroquine resistance transporter, a putative chloroquine-resistance determinant. Strong signals of selection were observed in genes involved in immune evasion and regulation of gene expression, highlighting the need for a multifaceted intervention approach to combat P. vivax in the region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Auburn
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Sisay Getachew
- College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Richard D Pearson
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Roberto Amato
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Olivo Miotto
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Mahidol–Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Hidayat Trimarsanto
- Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology, Jakarta, Indonesia
| | - Sha Joe Zhu
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Angela Rumaseb
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Jutta Marfurt
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
| | | | - Matthew J Grigg
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
- Infectious Diseases Society, Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Bridget Barber
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
- Infectious Diseases Society, Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Timothy William
- Infectious Diseases Society, Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Sabah, Malaysia
- Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia
- Jesselton Medical Centre, Sabah, Malaysia
| | | | | | - Kanlaya Sriprawat
- Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol–Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
| | - Nicholas M Anstey
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Francois Nosten
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol–Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand
| | - Beyene Petros
- College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Abraham Aseffa
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Gil McVean
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Dominic P Kwiatkowski
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Ric N Price
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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66
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Cowell AN, Winzeler EA. Advances in omics-based methods to identify novel targets for malaria and other parasitic protozoan infections. Genome Med 2019; 11:63. [PMID: 31640748 PMCID: PMC6805675 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-019-0673-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2019] [Accepted: 09/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
A major advance in antimalarial drug discovery has been the shift towards cell-based phenotypic screening, with notable progress in the screening of compounds against the asexual blood stage, liver stage, and gametocytes. A primary method for drug target deconvolution in Plasmodium falciparum is in vitro evolution of compound-resistant parasites followed by whole-genome scans. Several of the most promising antimalarial drug targets, such as translation elongation factor 2 (eEF2) and phenylalanine tRNA synthetase (PheRS), have been identified or confirmed using this method. One drawback of this method is that if a mutated gene is uncharacterized, a substantial effort may be required to determine whether it is a drug target, a drug resistance gene, or if the mutation is merely a background mutation. Thus, the availability of high-throughput, functional genomic datasets can greatly assist with target deconvolution. Studies mapping genome-wide essentiality in P. falciparum or performing transcriptional profiling of the host and parasite during liver-stage infection with P. berghei have identified potentially druggable pathways. Advances in mapping the epigenomic regulation of the malaria parasite genome have also enabled the identification of key processes involved in parasite development. In addition, the examination of the host genome during infection has identified novel gene candidates associated with susceptibility to severe malaria. Here, we review recent studies that have used omics-based methods to identify novel targets for interventions against protozoan parasites, focusing on malaria, and we highlight the advantages and limitations of the approaches used. These approaches have also been extended to other protozoan pathogens, including Toxoplasma, Trypanosoma, and Leishmania spp., and these studies highlight how drug discovery efforts against these pathogens benefit from the utilization of diverse omics-based methods to identify promising drug targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annie N Cowell
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
| | - Elizabeth A Winzeler
- Division of Host-Microbe Systems and Therapeutics, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
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67
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Lo E, Hostetler JB, Yewhalaw D, Pearson RD, Hamid MMA, Gunalan K, Kepple D, Ford A, Janies DA, Rayner JC, Miller LH, Yan G. Frequent expansion of Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein in Ethiopia and its epidemiological significance. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2019; 13:e0007222. [PMID: 31509523 PMCID: PMC6756552 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2019] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax invasion of human erythrocytes depends on the Duffy Binding Protein (PvDBP) which interacts with the Duffy antigen. PvDBP copy number has been recently shown to vary between P. vivax isolates in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the extent of PvDBP copy number variation, the type of PvDBP multiplications, as well as its significance across broad samples are still unclear. We determined the prevalence and type of PvDBP duplications, as well as PvDBP copy number variation among 178 Ethiopian P. vivax isolates using a PCR-based diagnostic method, a novel quantitative real-time PCR assay and whole genome sequencing. For the 145 symptomatic samples, PvDBP duplications were detected in 95 isolates, of which 81 had the Cambodian and 14 Malagasy-type PvDBP duplications. PvDBP varied from 1 to >4 copies. Isolates with multiple PvDBP copies were found to be higher in symptomatic than asymptomatic infections. For the 33 asymptomatic samples, PvDBP was detected with two copies in two of the isolates, and both were the Cambodian-type PvDBP duplication. PvDBP copy number in Duffy-negative heterozygotes was not significantly different from that in Duffy-positives, providing no support for the hypothesis that increased copy number is a specific association with Duffy-negativity, although the number of Duffy-negatives was small and further sampling is required to test this association thoroughly. Plasmodium vivax invasion of human erythrocytes relies on interaction between the Duffy antigen and P. vivax Duffy Binding Protein (PvDBP). Whole genome sequences from P. vivax field isolates in Madagascar identified a duplication of the PvDBP gene and PvDBP duplication has also been detected in non-African P. vivax-endemic countries. Two types of PvDBP duplications have been reported, termed Cambodian and Malagasy-type duplications. Our study used a combination of PCR-based diagnostic method, a novel quantitative real-time PCR assay, and whole genome sequencing to determine the prevalence and type of PvDBP duplications, as well as PvDBP copy number on a broad number of P. vivax samples in Ethiopia. We found that over 65% of P. vivax isolated from the symptomatic infections were detected with PvDBP duplications and PvDBP varied from 1 to >4 copies. The majority of PvDBP duplications belongs to the Cambodian-type while the Malagasy-type duplications was also detected. For the asymptomatic infections, despite a small sample size, the majority of P. vivax were detected with a single-copy based on both PCR and qPCR assays. There was no significant difference in PvDBP copy number between Duffy-null heterozygote and Duffy-positive homozygote/heterozygote. Further investigation is needed with expanded Duffy-null homozygotes to examine the functional significance of PvDBP expansion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugenia Lo
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States of America
- * E-mail: (EL); (LHM); (GY)
| | - Jessica B. Hostetler
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Delenasaw Yewhalaw
- Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Pathology, College of Public Health and Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Richard D. Pearson
- Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Muzamil M. A. Hamid
- Department of Parasitology and Medical Entomology, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
| | - Karthigayan Gunalan
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Daniel Kepple
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States of America
| | - Anthony Ford
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States of America
| | - Daniel A. Janies
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States of America
| | - Julian C. Rayner
- Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Louis H. Miller
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
- * E-mail: (EL); (LHM); (GY)
| | - Guiyun Yan
- Program in Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail: (EL); (LHM); (GY)
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68
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Plasmodium Genomics and Genetics: New Insights into Malaria Pathogenesis, Drug Resistance, Epidemiology, and Evolution. Clin Microbiol Rev 2019; 32:32/4/e00019-19. [PMID: 31366610 DOI: 10.1128/cmr.00019-19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Protozoan Plasmodium parasites are the causative agents of malaria, a deadly disease that continues to afflict hundreds of millions of people every year. Infections with malaria parasites can be asymptomatic, with mild or severe symptoms, or fatal, depending on many factors such as parasite virulence and host immune status. Malaria can be treated with various drugs, with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) being the first-line choice. Recent advances in genetics and genomics of malaria parasites have contributed greatly to our understanding of parasite population dynamics, transmission, drug responses, and pathogenesis. However, knowledge gaps in parasite biology and host-parasite interactions still remain. Parasites resistant to multiple antimalarial drugs have emerged, while advanced clinical trials have shown partial efficacy for one available vaccine. Here we discuss genetic and genomic studies of Plasmodium biology, host-parasite interactions, population structures, mosquito infectivity, antigenic variation, and targets for treatment and immunization. Knowledge from these studies will advance our understanding of malaria pathogenesis, epidemiology, and evolution and will support work to discover and develop new medicines and vaccines.
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69
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Cheng CW, Jongwutiwes S, Putaporntip C, Jackson AP. Clinical expression and antigenic profiles of a Plasmodium vivax vaccine candidate: merozoite surface protein 7 (PvMSP-7). Malar J 2019; 18:197. [PMID: 31196098 PMCID: PMC6567670 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-019-2826-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2019] [Accepted: 06/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Vivax malaria is the predominant form of malaria outside Africa, affecting about 14 million people worldwide, with about 2.5 billion people exposed. Development of a Plasmodium vivax vaccine is a priority, and merozoite surface protein 7 (MSP-7) has been proposed as a plausible candidate. The P. vivax genome contains 12 MSP-7 genes, which contribute to erythrocyte invasion during blood-stage infection. Previous analysis of MSP-7 sequence diversity suggested that not all paralogs are functionally equivalent. To explore MSP-7 functional diversity, and to identify the best vaccine candidate within the family, MSP-7 expression and antigenicity during bloodstream infections were examined directly from clinical isolates. Methods Merozoite surface protein 7 gene expression was profiled using RNA-seq data from blood samples isolated from ten human patients with vivax malaria. Differential expression analysis and co-expression cluster analysis were used to relate PvMSP-7 expression to genetic markers of life cycle stage. Plasma from vivax malaria patients was also assayed using a custom peptide microarray to measure antibody responses against the coding regions of 12 MSP-7 paralogs. Results Ten patients presented diverse transcriptional profiles that comprised four patient groups. Two MSP-7 paralogs, 7A and 7F, were expressed abundantly in all patients, while other MSP-7 genes were uniformly rare (e.g. 7J). MSP-7H and 7I were significantly more abundant in patient group 4 only, (two patients having experienced longer patency), and were co-expressed with a schizont-stage marker, while negatively associated with liver-stage and gametocyte-stage markers. Screening infections with a PvMSP-7 peptide array identified 13 linear B-cell epitopes in five MSP-7 paralogs that were recognized by plasma from all patients. Conclusions These results show that MSP-7 family members vary in expression profile during blood infections; MSP-7A and 7F are expressed throughout the intraerythrocytic development cycle, while expression of other paralogs is focused on the schizont. This may reflect developmental regulation, and potentially functional differentiation, within the gene family. The frequency of B-cell epitopes among paralogs also varies, with MSP-7A and 7L consistently the most immunogenic. Thus, MSP-7 paralogs cannot be assumed to have equal potential as vaccines. This analysis of clinical infections indicates that the most abundant and immunogenic paralog is MSP-7A. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12936-019-2826-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chew Weng Cheng
- Department of Infection Biology, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5RF, UK.,Molecular Biology of Malaria and Opportunistic Parasites Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Somchai Jongwutiwes
- Molecular Biology of Malaria and Opportunistic Parasites Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Chaturong Putaporntip
- Molecular Biology of Malaria and Opportunistic Parasites Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Andrew P Jackson
- Department of Infection Biology, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5RF, UK.
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70
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Flannery EL, Markus MB, Vaughan AM. Plasmodium vivax. Trends Parasitol 2019; 35:583-584. [PMID: 31176582 DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2019.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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71
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Verzier LH, Coyle R, Singh S, Sanderson T, Rayner JC. Plasmodium knowlesi as a model system for characterising Plasmodium vivax drug resistance candidate genes. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2019; 13:e0007470. [PMID: 31158222 PMCID: PMC6564043 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Revised: 06/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax causes the majority of malaria outside Africa, but is poorly understood at a cellular level partly due to technical difficulties in maintaining it in in vitro culture conditions. In the past decades, drug resistant P. vivax parasites have emerged, mainly in Southeast Asia, but while some molecular markers of resistance have been identified, none have so far been confirmed experimentally, which limits interpretation of the markers, and hence our ability to monitor and control the spread of resistance. Some of these potential markers have been identified through P. vivax genome-wide population genetic analyses, which highlighted genes under recent evolutionary selection in Southeast Asia, where chloroquine resistance is most prevalent. These genes could be involved in drug resistance, but no experimental proof currently exists to support this hypothesis. In this study, we used Plasmodium knowlesi, the most closely related species to P. vivax that can be cultured in human erythrocytes, as a model system to express P. vivax genes and test for their role in drug resistance. We adopted a strategy of episomal expression, and were able to express fourteen P. vivax genes, including two allelic variants of several hypothetical resistance genes. Their expression level and localisation were assessed, confirming cellular locations conjectured from orthologous species, and suggesting locations for several previously unlocalised proteins, including an apical location for PVX_101445. These findings establish P. knowlesi as a suitable model for P. vivax protein expression. We performed chloroquine and mefloquine drug assays, finding no significant differences in drug sensitivity: these results could be due to technical issues, or could indicate that these genes are not actually involved in drug resistance, despite being under positive selection pressure in Southeast Asia. These data confirm that in vitro P. knowlesi is a useful tool for studying P. vivax biology. Its close evolutionary relationship to P. vivax, high transfection efficiency, and the availability of markers for colocalisation, all make it a powerful model system. Our study is the first of its kind using P. knowlesi to study unknown P. vivax proteins and investigate drug resistance mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa H. Verzier
- Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
| | - Rachael Coyle
- Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
| | - Shivani Singh
- Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
| | - Theo Sanderson
- Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
| | - Julian C. Rayner
- Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
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72
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Muller I, Jex AR, Kappe SHI, Mikolajczak SA, Sattabongkot J, Patrapuvich R, Lindner S, Flannery EL, Koepfli C, Ansell B, Lerch A, Emery-Corbin SJ, Charnaud S, Smith J, Merrienne N, Swearingen KE, Moritz RL, Petter M, Duffy MF, Chuenchob V. Transcriptome and histone epigenome of Plasmodium vivax salivary-gland sporozoites point to tight regulatory control and mechanisms for liver-stage differentiation in relapsing malaria. Int J Parasitol 2019; 49:501-513. [PMID: 31071319 PMCID: PMC9973533 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2019.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2018] [Revised: 02/01/2019] [Accepted: 02/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax is the key obstacle to malaria elimination in Asia and Latin America, largely attributed to its ability to form resilient hypnozoites (sleeper cells) in the host liver that escape treatment and cause relapsing infections. The decision to form hypnozoites is made early in the liver infection and may already be set in sporozoites prior to invasion. To better understand these early stages of infection, we undertook a comprehensive transcriptomic and histone epigenetic characterization of P. vivax sporozoites. Through comparisons with recently published proteomic data for the P. vivax sporozoite, our study found that although highly transcribed, transcripts associated with functions needed for early infection of the vertebrate host are not detectable as proteins and may be regulated through translational repression. We identified differential transcription between the sporozoite and published transcriptomes of asexual blood stages and mixed versus hypnozoite-enriched liver stages. These comparisons point to multiple layers of transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational control that appear active in sporozoites and to a lesser extent hypnozoites, but are largely absent in replicating liver schizonts or mixed blood stages. We also characterised histone epigenetic modifications in the P. vivax sporozoite and explored their role in regulating transcription. Collectively, these data support the hypothesis that the sporozoite is a tightly programmed stage to infect the human host and identify mechanisms for hypnozoite formation that may be further explored in liver stage models.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ivo Muller
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia,Malaria: Parasites & Hosts Unit, Institut Pasteur, 28
Rue de Dr. Roux, 75015, Paris, France,Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne,
Victoria, 3010, Australia
| | - Aaron R. Jex
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia,Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne,
Victoria, 3010, Australia,Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The
University of Melbourne, Corner of Park and Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria,
3010, Australia
| | - Stefan H. I. Kappe
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute, 307 Westlake
Avenue North, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Sebastian A. Mikolajczak
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute, 307 Westlake
Avenue North, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Jetsumon Sattabongkot
- Mahidol Vivax Research Center, Faculty of Tropical
Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
| | | | - Scott Lindner
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center
for Malaria Research, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,
USA
| | - Erika L. Flannery
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute, 307 Westlake
Avenue North, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Cristian Koepfli
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia
| | - Brendan Ansell
- Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The
University of Melbourne, Corner of Park and Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria,
3010, Australia
| | - Anita Lerch
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia
| | - Samantha J Emery-Corbin
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia
| | - Sarah Charnaud
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia
| | - Jeffrey Smith
- Population Health and Immunity Division, The Walter and
Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria,
3052, Australia
| | - Nicolas Merrienne
- Malaria: Parasites & Hosts Unit, Institut Pasteur, 28
Rue de Dr. Roux, 75015, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Michaela Petter
- Department of Medicine Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Peter
Doherty Institute, The University of Melbourne, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne,
Victoria 3000, Australia,Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Erlangen,
Erlangen 91054, Germany
| | - Michael F. Duffy
- Department of Medicine Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Peter
Doherty Institute, The University of Melbourne, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne,
Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Vorada Chuenchob
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute, 307 Westlake
Avenue North, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
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73
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Transcriptome profiling of Plasmodium vivax in Saimiri monkeys identifies potential ligands for invasion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:7053-7061. [PMID: 30872477 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1818485116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Unlike the case in Asia and Latin America, Plasmodium vivax infections are rare in sub-Saharan Africa due to the absence of the Duffy blood group antigen (Duffy antigen), the only known erythrocyte receptor for the P. vivax merozoite invasion ligand, Duffy binding protein 1 (DBP1). However, P. vivax infections have been documented in Duffy-negative individuals throughout Africa, suggesting that P. vivax may use ligands other than DBP1 to invade Duffy-negative erythrocytes through other receptors. To identify potential P. vivax ligands, we compared parasite gene expression in Saimiri and Aotus monkey erythrocytes infected with P. vivax Salvador I (Sal I). DBP1 binds Aotus but does not bind to Saimiri erythrocytes; thus, P. vivax Sal I must invade Saimiri erythrocytes independent of DBP1. Comparing RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data for late-stage infections in Saimiri and Aotus erythrocytes when invasion ligands are expressed, we identified genes that belong to tryptophan-rich antigen and merozoite surface protein 3 (MSP3) families that were more abundantly expressed in Saimiri infections compared with Aotus infections. These genes may encode potential ligands responsible for P. vivax infections of Duffy-negative Africans.
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74
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Kim A, Popovici J, Menard D, Serre D. Plasmodium vivax transcriptomes reveal stage-specific chloroquine response and differential regulation of male and female gametocytes. Nat Commun 2019; 10:371. [PMID: 30670687 PMCID: PMC6342968 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08312-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2018] [Accepted: 12/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of Plasmodium vivax gene expression are complicated by the lack of in vitro culture system and the difficulties associated with studying clinical infections that often contain multiple clones and a mixture of parasite stages. Here, we characterize the transcriptomes of P. vivax parasites from 26 malaria patients. We show that most parasite mRNAs derive from trophozoites and that the asynchronicity of P. vivax infections is therefore unlikely to confound gene expression studies. Analyses of gametocyte genes reveal two distinct clusters of co-regulated genes, suggesting that male and female gametocytes are independently regulated. Finally, we analyze gene expression changes induced by chloroquine and show that this antimalarial drug efficiently eliminates most P. vivax parasite stages but, in contrast to P. falciparum, does not affect trophozoites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Kim
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA
| | - Jean Popovici
- Malaria Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, 5 Boulevard Monivong, PO Box 983, Phnom Penh, 12 201, Cambodia
| | - Didier Menard
- Malaria Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, 5 Boulevard Monivong, PO Box 983, Phnom Penh, 12 201, Cambodia
- Biology of Host-Parasite Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 Rue du Dr. Roux, 75724, Paris, France
| | - David Serre
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA.
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75
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Swearingen KE, Eng JK, Shteynberg D, Vigdorovich V, Springer TA, Mendoza L, Sather DN, Deutsch EW, Kappe SHI, Moritz RL. A Tandem Mass Spectrometry Sequence Database Search Method for Identification of O-Fucosylated Proteins by Mass Spectrometry. J Proteome Res 2018; 18:652-663. [PMID: 30523691 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.8b00638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Thrombospondin type 1 repeats (TSRs), small adhesive protein domains with a wide range of functions, are usually modified with O-linked fucose, which may be extended to O-fucose-β1,3-glucose. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) spectra of O-fucosylated peptides cannot be sequenced by standard tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) sequence database search engines because O-linked glycans are highly labile in the gas phase and are effectively absent from the CID peptide fragment spectra, resulting in a large mass error. Electron transfer dissociation (ETD) preserves O-linked glycans on peptide fragments, but only a subset of tryptic peptides with low m/ z can be reliably sequenced from ETD spectra compared to CID. Accordingly, studies to date that have used MS to identify O-fucosylated TSRs have required manual interpretation of CID mass spectra even when ETD was also employed. In order to facilitate high-throughput, automatic identification of O-fucosylated peptides from CID spectra, we re-engineered the MS/MS sequence database search engine Comet and the MS data analysis suite Trans-Proteomic Pipeline to enable automated sequencing of peptides exhibiting the neutral losses characteristic of labile O-linked glycans. We used our approach to reanalyze published proteomics data from Plasmodium parasites and identified multiple glycoforms of TSR-containing proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jimmy K Eng
- Proteomics Resource , University of Washington , Seattle , Washington 98195 , United States
| | - David Shteynberg
- Institute for Systems Biology , Seattle , Washington 98109 , United States
| | - Vladimir Vigdorovich
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research , Seattle Children's Research Institute , Seattle , Washington 98101 , United States
| | - Timothy A Springer
- Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital , Boston , Massachusetts 02115 , United States
| | - Luis Mendoza
- Institute for Systems Biology , Seattle , Washington 98109 , United States
| | - D Noah Sather
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research , Seattle Children's Research Institute , Seattle , Washington 98101 , United States
| | - Eric W Deutsch
- Institute for Systems Biology , Seattle , Washington 98109 , United States
| | - Stefan H I Kappe
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research , Seattle Children's Research Institute , Seattle , Washington 98101 , United States
| | - Robert L Moritz
- Institute for Systems Biology , Seattle , Washington 98109 , United States
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76
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Plasmodium genomics: an approach for learning about and ending human malaria. Parasitol Res 2018; 118:1-27. [PMID: 30402656 DOI: 10.1007/s00436-018-6127-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2018] [Accepted: 10/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Malaria causes high levels of morbidity and mortality in human beings worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about half a million people die of this disease each year. Malaria is caused by six species of parasites belonging to the Plasmodium genus: P. falciparum, P. knowlesi, P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale curtisi, and P. ovale wallikeri. Currently, malaria is being kept under control with varying levels of elimination success in different countries. The development of new molecular tools as well as the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and novel bioinformatic approaches has improved our knowledge of malarial epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, vaccine development, and surveillance strategies. In this work, the genetics and genomics of human malarias have been analyzed. Since the first P. falciparum genome was sequenced in 2002, various population-level genetic and genomic surveys, together with transcriptomic and proteomic studies, have shown the importance of molecular approaches in supporting malaria elimination.
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77
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Loy DE, Plenderleith LJ, Sundararaman SA, Liu W, Gruszczyk J, Chen YJ, Trimboli S, Learn GH, MacLean OA, Morgan ALK, Li Y, Avitto AN, Giles J, Calvignac-Spencer S, Sachse A, Leendertz FH, Speede S, Ayouba A, Peeters M, Rayner JC, Tham WH, Sharp PM, Hahn BH. Evolutionary history of human Plasmodium vivax revealed by genome-wide analyses of related ape parasites. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:E8450-E8459. [PMID: 30127015 PMCID: PMC6130405 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810053115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Wild-living African apes are endemically infected with parasites that are closely related to human Plasmodium vivax, a leading cause of malaria outside Africa. This finding suggests that the origin of P. vivax was in Africa, even though the parasite is now rare in humans there. To elucidate the emergence of human P. vivax and its relationship to the ape parasites, we analyzed genome sequence data of P. vivax strains infecting six chimpanzees and one gorilla from Cameroon, Gabon, and Côte d'Ivoire. We found that ape and human parasites share nearly identical core genomes, differing by only 2% of coding sequences. However, compared with the ape parasites, human strains of P. vivax exhibit about 10-fold less diversity and have a relative excess of nonsynonymous nucleotide polymorphisms, with site-frequency spectra suggesting they are subject to greatly relaxed purifying selection. These data suggest that human P. vivax has undergone an extreme bottleneck, followed by rapid population expansion. Investigating potential host-specificity determinants, we found that ape P. vivax parasites encode intact orthologs of three reticulocyte-binding protein genes (rbp2d, rbp2e, and rbp3), which are pseudogenes in all human P. vivax strains. However, binding studies of recombinant RBP2e and RBP3 proteins to human, chimpanzee, and gorilla erythrocytes revealed no evidence of host-specific barriers to red blood cell invasion. These data suggest that, from an ancient stock of P. vivax parasites capable of infecting both humans and apes, a severely bottlenecked lineage emerged out of Africa and underwent rapid population growth as it spread globally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorothy E Loy
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Lindsey J Plenderleith
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
| | - Sesh A Sundararaman
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Weimin Liu
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Jakub Gruszczyk
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia
| | - Yi-Jun Chen
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
- Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Stephanie Trimboli
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Gerald H Learn
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Oscar A MacLean
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
| | - Alex L K Morgan
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
| | - Yingying Li
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Alexa N Avitto
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Jasmin Giles
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | | | | | | | - Sheri Speede
- Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, International Development Association-Africa, Portland, OR 97208
| | - Ahidjo Ayouba
- Recherche Translationnelle Appliquée au VIH et aux Maladies Infectieuses, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, University of Montpellier, INSERM, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Martine Peeters
- Recherche Translationnelle Appliquée au VIH et aux Maladies Infectieuses, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, University of Montpellier, INSERM, 34090 Montpellier, France
| | - Julian C Rayner
- Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Genome Campus, Hinxton Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
| | - Wai-Hong Tham
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Paul M Sharp
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
| | - Beatrice H Hahn
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
- Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
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78
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Roth A, Adapa SR, Zhang M, Liao X, Saxena V, Goffe R, Li S, Ubalee R, Saggu GS, Pala ZR, Garg S, Davidson S, Jiang RHY, Adams JH. Unraveling the Plasmodium vivax sporozoite transcriptional journey from mosquito vector to human host. Sci Rep 2018; 8:12183. [PMID: 30111801 PMCID: PMC6093925 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30713-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Malaria parasites transmitted by mosquito bite are remarkably efficient in establishing human infections. The infection process requires roughly 30 minutes and is highly complex as quiescent sporozoites injected with mosquito saliva must be rapidly activated in the skin, migrate through the body, and infect the liver. This process is poorly understood for Plasmodium vivax due to low infectivity in the in vitro models. To study this skin-to-liver-stage of malaria, we used quantitative bioassays coupled with transcriptomics to evaluate parasite changes linked with mammalian microenvironmental factors. Our in vitro phenotyping and RNA-seq analyses revealed key microenvironmental relationships with distinct biological functions. Most notable, preservation of sporozoite quiescence by exposure to insect-like factors coupled with strategic activation limits untimely activation of invasion-associated genes to dramatically increase hepatocyte invasion rates. We also report the first transcriptomic analysis of the P. vivax sporozoite interaction in salivary glands identifying 118 infection-related differentially-regulated Anopheles dirus genes. These results provide important new insights in malaria parasite biology and identify priority targets for antimalarial therapeutic interventions to block P. vivax infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison Roth
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Swamy R Adapa
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Min Zhang
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Xiangyun Liao
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Vishal Saxena
- Molecular Parasitology and System Biology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
| | - Raaven Goffe
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Suzanne Li
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Ratawan Ubalee
- Department of Entomology, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Gagandeep S Saggu
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, Rockville, Maryland, USA
| | - Zarna R Pala
- Molecular Parasitology and System Biology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
| | - Shilpi Garg
- Molecular Parasitology and System Biology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
| | - Silas Davidson
- Department of Entomology, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Rays H Y Jiang
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
| | - John H Adams
- Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
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79
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Gilabert A, Otto TD, Rutledge GG, Franzon B, Ollomo B, Arnathau C, Durand P, Moukodoum ND, Okouga AP, Ngoubangoye B, Makanga B, Boundenga L, Paupy C, Renaud F, Prugnolle F, Rougeron V. Plasmodium vivax-like genome sequences shed new insights into Plasmodium vivax biology and evolution. PLoS Biol 2018; 16:e2006035. [PMID: 30142149 PMCID: PMC6130868 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2006035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2018] [Revised: 09/10/2018] [Accepted: 08/07/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Although Plasmodium vivax is responsible for the majority of malaria infections outside Africa, little is known about its evolution and pathway to humans. Its closest genetic relative, P. vivax-like, was discovered in African great apes and is hypothesized to have given rise to P. vivax in humans. To unravel the evolutionary history and adaptation of P. vivax to different host environments, we generated using long- and short-read sequence technologies 2 new P. vivax-like reference genomes and 9 additional P. vivax-like genotypes. Analyses show that the genomes of P. vivax and P. vivax-like are highly similar and colinear within the core regions. Phylogenetic analyses clearly show that P. vivax-like parasites form a genetically distinct clade from P. vivax. Concerning the relative divergence dating, we show that the evolution of P. vivax in humans did not occur at the same time as the other agents of human malaria, thus suggesting that the transfer of Plasmodium parasites to humans happened several times independently over the history of the Homo genus. We further identify several key genes that exhibit signatures of positive selection exclusively in the human P. vivax parasites. Two of these genes have been identified to also be under positive selection in the other main human malaria agent, P. falciparum, thus suggesting their key role in the evolution of the ability of these parasites to infect humans or their anthropophilic vectors. Finally, we demonstrate that some gene families important for red blood cell (RBC) invasion (a key step of the life cycle of these parasites) have undergone lineage-specific evolution in the human parasite (e.g., reticulocyte-binding proteins [RBPs]).
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Affiliation(s)
- Aude Gilabert
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Thomas D. Otto
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Gavin G. Rutledge
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Blaise Franzon
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Benjamin Ollomo
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - Céline Arnathau
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Patrick Durand
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Nancy D. Moukodoum
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - Alain-Prince Okouga
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | | | - Boris Makanga
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - Larson Boundenga
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - Christophe Paupy
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - François Renaud
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Franck Prugnolle
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
| | - Virginie Rougeron
- MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon
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80
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Auburn S, Benavente ED, Miotto O, Pearson RD, Amato R, Grigg MJ, Barber BE, William T, Handayuni I, Marfurt J, Trimarsanto H, Noviyanti R, Sriprawat K, Nosten F, Campino S, Clark TG, Anstey NM, Kwiatkowski DP, Price RN. Genomic analysis of a pre-elimination Malaysian Plasmodium vivax population reveals selective pressures and changing transmission dynamics. Nat Commun 2018; 9:2585. [PMID: 29968722 PMCID: PMC6030216 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04965-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 06/01/2018] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The incidence of Plasmodium vivax infection has declined markedly in Malaysia over the past decade despite evidence of high-grade chloroquine resistance. Here we investigate the genetic changes in a P. vivax population approaching elimination in 51 isolates from Sabah, Malaysia and compare these with data from 104 isolates from Thailand and 104 isolates from Indonesia. Sabah displays extensive population structure, mirroring that previously seen with the emergence of artemisinin-resistant P. falciparum founder populations in Cambodia. Fifty-four percent of the Sabah isolates have identical genomes, consistent with a rapid clonal expansion. Across Sabah, there is a high prevalence of loci known to be associated with antimalarial drug resistance. Measures of differentiation between the three countries reveal several gene regions under putative selection in Sabah. Our findings highlight important factors pertinent to parasite resurgence and molecular cues that can be used to monitor low-endemic populations at the end stages of P. vivax elimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Auburn
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia ,Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF UK
| | - Ernest D. Benavente
- 0000 0004 0425 469Xgrid.8991.9Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT UK
| | - Olivo Miotto
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF UK ,0000 0004 0606 5382grid.10306.34Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK ,0000 0004 1937 0490grid.10223.32Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 10400 Thailand
| | - Richard D. Pearson
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF UK ,0000 0004 0606 5382grid.10306.34Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK
| | - Roberto Amato
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF UK ,0000 0004 0606 5382grid.10306.34Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK
| | - Matthew J. Grigg
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia ,Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, 88300 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Bridget E. Barber
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia ,Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, 88300 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Timothy William
- Infectious Diseases Society Sabah-Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, 88300 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia ,0000 0004 1772 8727grid.415560.3Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 88300 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia ,Jesselton Medical Centre, 88300 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Irene Handayuni
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia
| | - Jutta Marfurt
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia
| | - Hidayat Trimarsanto
- 0000 0004 1795 0993grid.418754.bEijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Jakarta, 10430 Indonesia ,0000 0001 0746 0534grid.432292.cAgency for Assessment and Application of Technology, Jl. MH Thamrin 8, Jakarta, 10340 Indonesia
| | - Rintis Noviyanti
- 0000 0004 1795 0993grid.418754.bEijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Jakarta, 10430 Indonesia
| | - Kanlaya Sriprawat
- 0000 0004 1937 0490grid.10223.32Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot Tak, 63110 Thailand
| | - Francois Nosten
- 0000 0004 1937 0490grid.10223.32Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot Tak, 63110 Thailand ,Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LJ UK
| | - Susana Campino
- 0000 0004 0425 469Xgrid.8991.9Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT UK
| | - Taane G. Clark
- 0000 0004 0425 469Xgrid.8991.9Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT UK ,0000 0004 0425 469Xgrid.8991.9Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT UK
| | - Nicholas M. Anstey
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia
| | - Dominic P. Kwiatkowski
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF UK ,0000 0004 0606 5382grid.10306.34Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK
| | - Ric N. Price
- 0000 0000 8523 7955grid.271089.5Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811 Australia ,Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LJ UK
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81
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Lee HJ, Georgiadou A, Otto TD, Levin M, Coin LJ, Conway DJ, Cunnington AJ. Transcriptomic Studies of Malaria: a Paradigm for Investigation of Systemic Host-Pathogen Interactions. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2018; 82:e00071-17. [PMID: 29695497 PMCID: PMC5968457 DOI: 10.1128/mmbr.00071-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcriptomics, the analysis of genome-wide RNA expression, is a common approach to investigate host and pathogen processes in infectious diseases. Technical and bioinformatic advances have permitted increasingly thorough analyses of the association of RNA expression with fundamental biology, immunity, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and prognosis. Transcriptomic approaches can now be used to realize a previously unattainable goal, the simultaneous study of RNA expression in host and pathogen, in order to better understand their interactions. This exciting prospect is not without challenges, especially as focus moves from interactions in vitro under tightly controlled conditions to tissue- and systems-level interactions in animal models and natural and experimental infections in humans. Here we review the contribution of transcriptomic studies to the understanding of malaria, a parasitic disease which has exerted a major influence on human evolution and continues to cause a huge global burden of disease. We consider malaria a paradigm for the transcriptomic assessment of systemic host-pathogen interactions in humans, because much of the direct host-pathogen interaction occurs within the blood, a readily sampled compartment of the body. We illustrate lessons learned from transcriptomic studies of malaria and how these lessons may guide studies of host-pathogen interactions in other infectious diseases. We propose that the potential of transcriptomic studies to improve the understanding of malaria as a disease remains partly untapped because of limitations in study design rather than as a consequence of technological constraints. Further advances will require the integration of transcriptomic data with analytical approaches from other scientific disciplines, including epidemiology and mathematical modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun Jae Lee
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | | | - Thomas D Otto
- Centre of Immunobiology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Michael Levin
- Section of Paediatrics, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lachlan J Coin
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - David J Conway
- Department of Pathogen Molecular Biology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
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82
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Otto TD, Böhme U, Sanders M, Reid A, Bruske EI, Duffy CW, Bull PC, Pearson RD, Abdi A, Dimonte S, Stewart LB, Campino S, Kekre M, Hamilton WL, Claessens A, Volkman SK, Ndiaye D, Amambua-Ngwa A, Diakite M, Fairhurst RM, Conway DJ, Franck M, Newbold CI, Berriman M. Long read assemblies of geographically dispersed Plasmodium falciparum isolates reveal highly structured subtelomeres. Wellcome Open Res 2018; 3:52. [PMID: 29862326 PMCID: PMC5964635 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.14571.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/27/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Although thousands of clinical isolates of
Plasmodium falciparum are being sequenced and analysed by short read technology, the data do not resolve the highly variable subtelomeric regions of the genomes that contain polymorphic gene families involved in immune evasion and pathogenesis. There is also no current standard definition of the boundaries of these variable subtelomeric regions. Methods: Using long-read sequence data (Pacific Biosciences SMRT technology), we assembled and annotated the genomes of 15
P. falciparum isolates, ten of which are newly cultured clinical isolates. We performed comparative analysis of the entire genome with particular emphasis on the subtelomeric regions and the internal
var genes clusters.
Results: The nearly complete sequence of these 15 isolates has enabled us to define a highly conserved core genome, to delineate the boundaries of the subtelomeric regions, and to compare these across isolates. We found highly structured variable regions in the genome. Some exported gene families purportedly involved in release of merozoites show copy number variation. As an example of ongoing genome evolution, we found a novel CLAG gene in six isolates. We also found a novel gene that was relatively enriched in the South East Asian isolates compared to those from Africa. Conclusions: These 15 manually curated new reference genome sequences with their nearly complete subtelomeric regions and fully assembled genes are an important new resource for the malaria research community. We report the overall conserved structure and pattern of important gene families and the more clearly defined subtelomeric regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas D Otto
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.,Centre of Immunobiology, Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | | | | | - Adam Reid
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Ellen I Bruske
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Craig W Duffy
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Pete C Bull
- Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Richard D Pearson
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.,Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Sandra Dimonte
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Susana Campino
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | | | | | | | - Sarah K Volkman
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.,The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daouda Ndiaye
- Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
| | | | - Mahamadou Diakite
- Malaria Research and Training Center, University of Bamako, Bamako, Mali
| | - Rick M Fairhurst
- Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA
| | - David J Conway
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Matthias Franck
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Chris I Newbold
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.,Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
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83
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Gural N, Mancio-Silva L, Miller AB, Galstian A, Butty VL, Levine SS, Patrapuvich R, Desai SP, Mikolajczak SA, Kappe SHI, Fleming HE, March S, Sattabongkot J, Bhatia SN. In Vitro Culture, Drug Sensitivity, and Transcriptome of Plasmodium Vivax Hypnozoites. Cell Host Microbe 2018; 23:395-406.e4. [PMID: 29478773 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2018.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2017] [Revised: 11/21/2017] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
The unique relapsing nature of Plasmodium vivax infection is a major barrier to malaria eradication. Upon infection, dormant liver-stage forms, hypnozoites, linger for weeks to months and then relapse to cause recurrent blood-stage infection. Very little is known about hypnozoite biology; definitive biomarkers are lacking and in vitro platforms that support phenotypic studies are needed. Here, we recapitulate the entire liver stage of P. vivax in vitro, using a multiwell format that incorporates micropatterned primary human hepatocyte co-cultures (MPCCs). MPCCs feature key aspects of P. vivax biology, including establishment of persistent small forms and growing schizonts, merosome release, and subsequent infection of reticulocytes. We find that the small forms exhibit previously described hallmarks of hypnozoites, and we pilot MPCCs as a tool for testing candidate anti-hypnozoite drugs. Finally, we employ a hybrid capture strategy and RNA sequencing to describe the hypnozoite transcriptome and gain insight into its biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nil Gural
- Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Liliana Mancio-Silva
- Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Alex B Miller
- Broad Institute, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | | | - Vincent L Butty
- BioMicro Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Stuart S Levine
- BioMicro Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Rapatbhorn Patrapuvich
- Mahidol Vivax Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
| | | | | | | | - Heather E Fleming
- Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Sandra March
- Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Broad Institute, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA
| | - Jetsumon Sattabongkot
- Mahidol Vivax Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Broad Institute, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Boston, MA 02142, USA; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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84
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Bourgard C, Albrecht L, Kayano ACAV, Sunnerhagen P, Costa FTM. Plasmodium vivax Biology: Insights Provided by Genomics, Transcriptomics and Proteomics. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2018; 8:34. [PMID: 29473024 PMCID: PMC5809496 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2018.00034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2017] [Accepted: 01/25/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
During the last decade, the vast omics field has revolutionized biological research, especially the genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics branches, as technological tools become available to the field researcher and allow difficult question-driven studies to be addressed. Parasitology has greatly benefited from next generation sequencing (NGS) projects, which have resulted in a broadened comprehension of basic parasite molecular biology, ecology and epidemiology. Malariology is one example where application of this technology has greatly contributed to a better understanding of Plasmodium spp. biology and host-parasite interactions. Among the several parasite species that cause human malaria, the neglected Plasmodium vivax presents great research challenges, as in vitro culturing is not yet feasible and functional assays are heavily limited. Therefore, there are gaps in our P. vivax biology knowledge that affect decisions for control policies aiming to eradicate vivax malaria in the near future. In this review, we provide a snapshot of key discoveries already achieved in P. vivax sequencing projects, focusing on developments, hurdles, and limitations currently faced by the research community, as well as perspectives on future vivax malaria research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catarina Bourgard
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Letusa Albrecht
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.,Laboratory of Regulation of Gene Expression, Instituto Carlos Chagas, Curitiba, Brazil
| | - Ana C A V Kayano
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Per Sunnerhagen
- Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Fabio T M Costa
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil
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85
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Gruenberg M, Moniz CA, Hofmann NE, Wampfler R, Koepfli C, Mueller I, Monteiro WM, Lacerda M, de Melo GC, Kuehn A, Siqueira AM, Felger I. Plasmodium vivax molecular diagnostics in community surveys: pitfalls and solutions. Malar J 2018; 17:55. [PMID: 29378609 PMCID: PMC5789620 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-018-2201-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2017] [Accepted: 01/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
A distinctive feature of Plasmodium vivax infections is the overall low parasite density in peripheral blood. Thus, identifying asymptomatic infected individuals in endemic communities requires diagnostic tests with high sensitivity. The detection limits of molecular diagnostic tests are primarily defined by the volume of blood analysed and by the copy number of the amplified molecular marker serving as the template for amplification. By using mitochondrial DNA as the multi-copy template, the detection limit can be improved more than tenfold, compared to standard 18S rRNA targets, thereby allowing detection of lower parasite densities. In a very low transmission area in Brazil, application of a mitochondrial DNA-based assay increased prevalence from 4.9 to 6.5%. The usefulness of molecular tests in malaria epidemiological studies is widely recognized, especially when precise prevalence rates are desired. Of concern, however, is the challenge of demonstrating test accuracy and quality control for samples with very low parasite densities. In this case, chance effects in template distribution around the detection limit constrain reproducibility. Rigorous assessment of false positive and false negative test results is, therefore, required to prevent over- or under-estimation of parasite prevalence in epidemiological studies or when monitoring interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Gruenberg
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.,University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Clara Antunes Moniz
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.,University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Natalie Ellen Hofmann
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.,University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Rahel Wampfler
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.,University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Cristian Koepfli
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Ivo Mueller
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | | | - Marcus Lacerda
- Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil.,Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil
| | - Gisely Cardoso de Melo
- Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil.,Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil
| | - Andrea Kuehn
- Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil
| | - Andre M Siqueira
- Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Infectologia, Evandro Chagas, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Ingrid Felger
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland. .,University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
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86
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Castillo AI, Nelson ADL, Haug-Baltzell AK, Lyons E. A tutorial of diverse genome analysis tools found in the CoGe web-platform using Plasmodiumspp. as a model. Database (Oxford) 2018. [PMCID: PMC5887277 DOI: 10.1093/database/bay030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Integrated platforms for storage, management, analysis and sharing of large quantities of omics data have become fundamental to comparative genomics. CoGe (https://genomevolution.org/coge/) is an online platform designed to manage and study genomic data, enabling both data- and hypothesis-driven comparative genomics. CoGe’s tools and resources can be used to organize and analyse both publicly available and private genomic data from any species. Here, we demonstrate the capabilities of CoGe through three example workflows using 17 Plasmodium genomes as a model. Plasmodium genomes present unique challenges for comparative genomics due to their rapidly evolving and highly variable genomic AT/GC content. These example workflows are intended to serve as templates to help guide researchers who would like to use CoGe to examine diverse aspects of genome evolution. In the first workflow, trends in genome composition and amino acid usage are explored. In the second, changes in genome structure and the distribution of synonymous (Ks) and non-synonymous (Kn) substitution values are evaluated across species with different levels of evolutionary relatedness. In the third workflow, microsyntenic analyses of multigene families’ genomic organization are conducted using two Plasmodium-specific gene families—serine repeat antigen, and cytoadherence-linked asexual gene—as models. In general, these example workflows show how to achieve quick, reproducible and shareable results using the CoGe platform. We were able to replicate previously published results, as well as leverage CoGe’s tools and resources to gain additional insight into various aspects of Plasmodium genome evolution. Our results highlight the usefulness of the CoGe platform, particularly in understanding complex features of genome evolution. Database URL: https://genomevolution.org/coge/
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreina I Castillo
- BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, 1657 E Helen St, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
| | - Andrew D L Nelson
- BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, 1657 E Helen St, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
| | - Asher K Haug-Baltzell
- School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 1140 E South Campus Dr, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Arizona Biological/Biomedical Sciences Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - Eric Lyons
- BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, 1657 E Helen St, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, 1140 E South Campus Dr, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
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87
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Fonseca LL, Joyner CJ, Galinski MR, Voit EO. A model of Plasmodium vivax concealment based on Plasmodium cynomolgi infections in Macaca mulatta. Malar J 2017; 16:375. [PMID: 28923058 PMCID: PMC5608162 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-017-2008-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2017] [Accepted: 09/02/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Plasmodium vivax can cause severe malaria. The total parasite biomass during infections is correlated with the severity of disease but not necessarily quantified accurately by microscopy. This finding has raised the question whether there could be sub-populations of parasites that are not observed in peripheral blood smears but continue to contribute to the increase in parasite numbers that drive pathogenesis. Non-human primate infection models utilizing the closely related simian malaria parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi hold the potential for quantifying the magnitude of possibly unobserved infected red blood cell (iRBC) populations and determining how the presence of this hidden reservoir correlates with disease severity. METHODS Time series data tracking the longitudinal development of parasitaemia in five Macaca mulatta infected with P. cynomolgi were used to design a computational model quantifying iRBCs that circulate in the blood versus those that are not detectable and are termed here as 'concealed'. This terminology is proposed to distinguish such observations from the deep vascular and widespread 'sequestration' of Plasmodium falciparum iRBCs, which is governed by distinctly different molecular mechanisms. RESULTS The computational model presented here clearly demonstrates that the observed growth data of iRBC populations are not consistent with the known biology and blood-stage cycle of P. cynomolgi. However, the discrepancies can be resolved when a sub-population of concealed iRBCs is taken into account. The model suggests that the early growth of a hidden parasite sub-population has the potential to drive disease. As an alternative, the data could be explained by the sequential release of merozoites from the liver over a number of days, but this scenario seems less likely. CONCLUSIONS Concealment of a non-circulating iRBC sub-population during P. cynomolgi infection of M. mulatta is an important aspect of this successful host-pathogen relationship. The data also support the likelihood that a sub-population of iRBCs of P. vivax has a comparable means to become withdrawn from the peripheral circulation. This inference has implications for understanding vivax biology and pathogenesis and stresses the importance of considering a concealed parasite reservoir with regard to vivax epidemiology and the quantification and treatment of P. vivax infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis L Fonseca
- The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, 950 Atlantic Drive, Suite 2115, Atlanta, GA, 30332-2000, USA.,Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Chester J Joyner
- International Center for Malaria Research, Education and Development, Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA.,Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | - Mary R Galinski
- International Center for Malaria Research, Education and Development, Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA.,Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.,Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Eberhard O Voit
- The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, 950 Atlantic Drive, Suite 2115, Atlanta, GA, 30332-2000, USA. .,Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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88
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Anderson DC, Lapp SA, Barnwell JW, Galinski MR. A large scale Plasmodium vivax- Saimiri boliviensis trophozoite-schizont transition proteome. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0182561. [PMID: 28829774 PMCID: PMC5567661 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2016] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium vivax is a complex protozoan parasite with over 6,500 genes and stage-specific differential expression. Much of the unique biology of this pathogen remains unknown, including how it modifies and restructures the host reticulocyte. Using a recently published P. vivax reference genome, we report the proteome from two biological replicates of infected Saimiri boliviensis host reticulocytes undergoing transition from the late trophozoite to early schizont stages. Using five database search engines, we identified a total of 2000 P. vivax and 3487 S. boliviensis proteins, making this the most comprehensive P. vivax proteome to date. PlasmoDB GO-term enrichment analysis of proteins identified at least twice by a search engine highlighted core metabolic processes and molecular functions such as glycolysis, translation and protein folding, cell components such as ribosomes, proteasomes and the Golgi apparatus, and a number of vesicle and trafficking related clusters. Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) v6.8 enriched functional annotation clusters of S. boliviensis proteins highlighted vesicle and trafficking-related clusters, elements of the cytoskeleton, oxidative processes and response to oxidative stress, macromolecular complexes such as the proteasome and ribosome, metabolism, translation, and cell death. Host and parasite proteins potentially involved in cell adhesion were also identified. Over 25% of the P. vivax proteins have no functional annotation; this group includes 45 VIR members of the large PIR family. A number of host and pathogen proteins contained highly oxidized or nitrated residues, extending prior trophozoite-enriched stage observations from S. boliviensis infections, and supporting the possibility of oxidative stress in relation to the disease. This proteome significantly expands the size and complexity of the known P. vivax and Saimiri host iRBC proteomes, and provides in-depth data that will be valuable for ongoing research on this parasite’s biology and pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. C. Anderson
- Bioscience Division, SRI International, Harrisonburg, VA, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Stacey A. Lapp
- Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - John W. Barnwell
- Malaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - Mary R. Galinski
- Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
- Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
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89
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Proteogenomic analysis of the total and surface-exposed proteomes of Plasmodium vivax salivary gland sporozoites. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2017; 11:e0005791. [PMID: 28759593 PMCID: PMC5552340 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2017] [Revised: 08/10/2017] [Accepted: 07/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax cause the majority of human malaria cases. Research efforts predominantly focus on P. falciparum because of the clinical severity of infection and associated mortality rates. However, P. vivax malaria affects more people in a wider global range. Furthermore, unlike P. falciparum, P. vivax can persist in the liver as dormant hypnozoites that can be activated weeks to years after primary infection, causing relapse of symptomatic blood stages. This feature makes P. vivax unique and difficult to eliminate with the standard tools of vector control and treatment of symptomatic blood stage infection with antimalarial drugs. Infection by Plasmodium is initiated by the mosquito-transmitted sporozoite stage, a highly motile invasive cell that targets hepatocytes in the liver. The most advanced malaria vaccine for P. falciparum (RTS,S, a subunit vaccine containing of a portion of the major sporozoite surface protein) conferred limited protection in Phase III trials, falling short of WHO-established vaccine efficacy goals. However, blocking the sporozoite stage of infection in P. vivax, before the establishment of the chronic liver infection, might be an effective malaria vaccine strategy to reduce the occurrence of relapsing blood stages. It is also thought that a multivalent vaccine comprising multiple sporozoite surface antigens will provide better protection, but a comprehensive analysis of proteins in P. vivax sporozoites is not available. To inform sporozoite-based vaccine development, we employed mass spectrometry-based proteomics to identify nearly 2,000 proteins present in P. vivax salivary gland sporozoites. Analysis of protein post-translational modifications revealed extensive phosphorylation of glideosome proteins as well as regulators of transcription and translation. Additionally, the sporozoite surface proteins CSP and TRAP, which were recently discovered to be glycosylated in P. falciparum salivary gland sporozoites, were also observed to be similarly modified in P. vivax sporozoites. Quantitative comparison of the P. vivax and P. falciparum salivary gland sporozoite proteomes revealed a high degree of similarity in protein expression levels, including among invasion-related proteins. Nevertheless, orthologs with significantly different expression levels between the two species could be identified, as well as highly abundant, species-specific proteins with no known orthologs. Finally, we employed chemical labeling of live sporozoites to isolate and identify 36 proteins that are putatively surface-exposed on P. vivax salivary gland sporozoites. In addition to identifying conserved sporozoite surface proteins identified by similar analyses of other Plasmodium species, our analysis identified several as-yet uncharacterized proteins, including a putative 6-Cys protein with no known ortholog in P. falciparum. Malaria is one of the most important infectious diseases in the world with hundreds of millions of new cases every year. Malaria is caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium which have a complex life cycle, alternating between mosquito and mammalian hosts. Human infections are initiated with a sporozoite inoculum deposited into the skin by parasite-infected mosquitoes as they probe for blood. Sporozoites must locate blood vessels and enter the circulation to reach the liver where they invade and grow in hepatocytes. In the case of Plasmodium vivax, one of the two Plasmodium species responsible for the majority of the disease burden in the world, the parasite has the ability to persist for months in the liver after the initial infection and its activation causes the recurring appearance of the parasite in the blood. Though all clinical symptoms are attributable to the blood stages, it is only by attacking the transmission stages before the formation of hypnozoites (the persisting parasites in the liver) that an impact on the burden of vivax malaria can be achieved. We used state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based proteomics tools to identify the total protein make-up of P. vivax sporozoites. By analyzing which proteins are exposed to the parasite surface and determining the degree of protein’s post-translational modifications, our investigation will aid the understanding of the novel biology of sporozoites and importantly, advise the development of potential vaccine candidates targeting this parasite stage.
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90
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Pasini EM, Böhme U, Rutledge GG, Voorberg-Van der Wel A, Sanders M, Berriman M, Kocken CH, Otto TD. An improved Plasmodium cynomolgi genome assembly reveals an unexpected methyltransferase gene expansion. Wellcome Open Res 2017; 2:42. [PMID: 28748222 PMCID: PMC5500898 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.11864.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background:
Plasmodium cynomolgi, a non-human primate malaria parasite species, has been an important model parasite since its discovery in 1907. Similarities in the biology of
P. cynomolgi to the closely related, but less tractable, human malaria parasite
P. vivax make it the model parasite of choice for liver biology and vaccine studies pertinent to
P. vivax malaria. Molecular and genome-scale studies of
P. cynomolgi have relied on the current reference genome sequence, which remains highly fragmented with 1,649 unassigned scaffolds and little representation of the subtelomeres. Methods: Using long-read sequence data (Pacific Biosciences SMRT technology), we assembled and annotated a new reference genome sequence, PcyM, sourced from an Indian rhesus monkey. We compare the newly assembled genome sequence with those of several other
Plasmodium species, including a re-annotated
P. coatneyi assembly. Results: The new PcyM genome assembly is of significantly higher quality than the existing reference, comprising only 56 pieces, no gaps and an improved average gene length. Detailed manual curation has ensured a comprehensive annotation of the genome with 6,632 genes, nearly 1,000 more than previously attributed to
P. cynomolgi. The new assembly also has an improved representation of the subtelomeric regions, which account for nearly 40% of the sequence. Within the subtelomeres, we identified more than 1300
Plasmodium interspersed repeat (
pir) genes, as well as a striking expansion of 36 methyltransferase pseudogenes that originated from a single copy on chromosome 9. Conclusions: The manually curated PcyM reference genome sequence is an important new resource for the malaria research community. The high quality and contiguity of the data have enabled the discovery of a novel expansion of methyltransferase in the subtelomeres, and illustrates the new comparative genomics capabilities that are being unlocked by complete reference genomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica M Pasini
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, Lange Kleiweg 161, 2288GJ Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - Ulrike Böhme
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Gavin G Rutledge
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | | | - Mandy Sanders
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Matt Berriman
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Clemens Hm Kocken
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, Lange Kleiweg 161, 2288GJ Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - Thomas Dan Otto
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
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91
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Bitencourt Chaves L, Perce-da-Silva DDS, Rodrigues-da-Silva RN, Martins da Silva JH, Cassiano GC, Machado RLD, Pratt-Riccio LR, Banic DM, Lima-Junior JDC. Plasmodium vivax Cell Traversal Protein for Ookinetes and Sporozoites (PvCelTOS) gene sequence and potential epitopes are highly conserved among isolates from different regions of Brazilian Amazon. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2017; 11:e0005344. [PMID: 28158176 PMCID: PMC5310920 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2016] [Revised: 02/15/2017] [Accepted: 01/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The Plasmodium vivax Cell-traversal protein for ookinetes and sporozoites (PvCelTOS) plays an important role in the traversal of host cells. Although essential to PvCelTOS progress as a vaccine candidate, its genetic diversity remains uncharted. Therefore, we investigated the PvCelTOS genetic polymorphism in 119 field isolates from five different regions of Brazilian Amazon (Manaus, Novo Repartimento, Porto Velho, Plácido de Castro and Oiapoque). Moreover, we also evaluated the potential impact of non-synonymous mutations found in the predicted structure and epitopes of PvCelTOS. The field isolates showed high similarity (99.3% of bp) with the reference Sal-1 strain, presenting only four Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) at positions 24A, 28A, 109A and 352C. The frequency of synonymous C109A (82%) was higher than all others (p<0.0001). However, the non-synonymous G28A and G352C were observed in 9.2% and 11.7% isolates. The great majority of the isolates (79.8%) revealed complete amino acid sequence homology with Sal-1, 10.9% presented complete homology with Brazil I and two undescribed PvCelTOS sequences were observed in 9.2% field isolates. Concerning the prediction analysis, the N-terminal substitution (Gly10Ser) was predicted to be within a B-cell epitope (PvCelTOS Accession Nos. AB194053.1) and exposed at the protein surface, while the Val118Leu substitution was not a predicted epitope. Therefore, our data suggest that although G28A SNP might interfere in potential B-cell epitopes at PvCelTOS N-terminal region the gene sequence is highly conserved among the isolates from different geographic regions, which is an important feature to be taken into account when evaluating its potential as a vaccine candidate. Cell-traversal protein for ookinetes and sporozoites (CelTOS) presents a pivotal role in the cell traversal of host cells in mosquito and vertebrate hosts. For this reason, it has been considered a potential novel alternative for a vaccine against malaria caused by P. falciparum. However, little is known about its orthologous P. vivax CelTOS. Although the genetic diversity of this protein could be a limiting factor for acquisition of immunity and present implications for an effective vaccine development, it has never been explored. Thus, considering that the epidemiology of malaria in Brazil presents variable transmission rates and the knowledge on the genetic polymorphism of PvCelTOS remains unknown, we aimed to identify the pvceltos gene in isolates from five different regions of the Brazilian Amazon and to study the potential impacts of the genetic diversity of PvCelTOS in protein structures and predicted epitopes. Our findings indicate that PvCelTOS is an extremely conserved protein, presenting only four SNPs in the entire sequences of field isolates from Brazilian Amazon. The two non-synonymous mutations found in our field isolates presented no significant effect on the protein structure and a very low impact on potential T and B-cell epitopes indicated by our epitope prediction. Collectively, our data suggest that the small need to avoid the immune recognition by the human host and its importance on the parasite’s survival and transmission reflects a very conservative profile of pvceltos gene in field samples from Brazil and other endemic areas worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lana Bitencourt Chaves
- Laboratory of Immunoparasitology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | | | | | | | - Gustavo Capatti Cassiano
- Laboratory of Tropical Diseases - Prof. Luiz Jacintho da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Bioagents, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Lilian Rose Pratt-Riccio
- Laboratory of Malaria Research, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Dalma Maria Banic
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Josué da Costa Lima-Junior
- Laboratory of Immunoparasitology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- * E-mail:
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92
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Rutledge GG, Böhme U, Sanders M, Reid AJ, Cotton JA, Maiga-Ascofare O, Djimdé AA, Apinjoh TO, Amenga-Etego L, Manske M, Barnwell JW, Renaud F, Ollomo B, Prugnolle F, Anstey NM, Auburn S, Price RN, McCarthy JS, Kwiatkowski DP, Newbold CI, Berriman M, Otto TD. Plasmodium malariae and P. ovale genomes provide insights into malaria parasite evolution. Nature 2017; 542:101-104. [PMID: 28117441 PMCID: PMC5326575 DOI: 10.1038/nature21038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2016] [Accepted: 12/04/2016] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Elucidation of the evolutionary history and interrelatedness of Plasmodium species that infect humans has been hampered by a lack of genetic information for three human-infective species: P. malariae and two P. ovale species (P. o. curtisi and P. o. wallikeri). These species are prevalent across most regions in which malaria is endemic and are often undetectable by light microscopy, rendering their study in human populations difficult. The exact evolutionary relationship of these species to the other human-infective species has been contested. Using a new reference genome for P. malariae and a manually curated draft P. o. curtisi genome, we are now able to accurately place these species within the Plasmodium phylogeny. Sequencing of a P. malariae relative that infects chimpanzees reveals similar signatures of selection in the P. malariae lineage to another Plasmodium lineage shown to be capable of colonization of both human and chimpanzee hosts. Molecular dating suggests that these host adaptations occurred over similar evolutionary timescales. In addition to the core genome that is conserved between species, differences in gene content can be linked to their specific biology. The genome suggests that P. malariae expresses a family of heterodimeric proteins on its surface that have structural similarities to a protein crucial for invasion of red blood cells. The data presented here provide insight into the evolution of the Plasmodium genus as a whole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gavin G Rutledge
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Ulrike Böhme
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Mandy Sanders
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Adam J Reid
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - James A Cotton
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Oumou Maiga-Ascofare
- Malaria Research and Training Center, University of Science, Techniques, and Technologies of Bamako, Bamako BP E.2528, Mali
- German Center for Infection Research, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Abdoulaye A Djimdé
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
- Malaria Research and Training Center, University of Science, Techniques, and Technologies of Bamako, Bamako BP E.2528, Mali
| | - Tobias O Apinjoh
- University of Buea, Post Office Box 63, Buea, South West Region, Republic of Cameroon
| | - Lucas Amenga-Etego
- Navrongo Health Research Centre, Post Office Box 114, Navrongo, Upper East Region, Ghana
| | - Magnus Manske
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - John W Barnwell
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA
| | - François Renaud
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (UM1-CNRS-IRD), 34394 Montpellier, France
| | - Benjamin Ollomo
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, BP 709 Franceville, Gabon
| | - Franck Prugnolle
- Laboratoire MIVEGEC (UM1-CNRS-IRD), 34394 Montpellier, France
- Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, BP 709 Franceville, Gabon
| | - Nicholas M Anstey
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0810, Australia
| | - Sarah Auburn
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0810, Australia
| | - Ric N Price
- Global and Tropical Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0810, Australia
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LJ, UK
| | - James S McCarthy
- Clinical Tropical Medicine Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia
| | - Dominic P Kwiatkowski
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK
| | - Chris I Newbold
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
- Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK
| | - Matthew Berriman
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Thomas D Otto
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
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