Sex-specific gene regulation in malaria parasites by an AP2 Family Transcription Factor [Agilent]

Malaria gametocytes, the precursors of gametes, is the stage essential for malaria transmission to the mosquito vector. In the circulation they arise from asexual erythrocytic stages and then develop into mature females and males. Identification of sex-specific transcription factors is a key to understand biology of this stage. However, despite of intensive studies, none of them have been identified yet. In this paper we report an AP2 family transcription factor AP2-FG is responsible for female-specific gene expression. To establish synchronous infection in Wistar rats, whole blood was harvested from rats infected with AP2-FG(-) or wild-type parasites and cultured for 16 h. Mature schizonts were purified from the culture with Nicodenz and inoculated into rats. Whole blood was harvested from these rats at 26 h after the innoculation. Four and five biologically independent experiments were performed in AP2-FG(−) and wild-type parasites, respectively.