Plasmodium knowlesi gene expression differs in ex vivo compared to in vitro blood-stage cultures

The purpose of this reasearch is to identify and evaluate the global gene expression of Plasmodium knowlesi blood-stage parasites and specifically compare the gene expression profiles of samples derived from ex vivo versus long-term in vitro cultures. For ex vivo samples, a rhesus monkey was infected with P. knowlesi to obtain ring iRBCs to establish a short-term culture to immediately collect ex vivo derived time points every 4 hours in the course of the parasite’s 24-hour life cycle. For in vivo samples, they were generated from the same clone in the ex vivo culture adapted to long-term in vitro culture and were collected every 4 hours in the course of the parasite's 24-hour life cycle. Two replicate experiments(Aa and Ha) were developed from in vitro cultures. Samples labeled with Cy5 were hybridized against a reference RNA pool labeled with Cy3, consisting of equal amounts of P. knowlesi RNA from each time point.