Transcriptional profiling of primary human erythroblasts infected with Plasmodium falciparum

In malaria infection, Plasmodium spp. parasites accumulate in the bone marrow near sites of erythroid development. While it has been observed that Plasmodium falciparum infection of late-stage erythroblasts can delay terminal erythroid differentiation and enucleation, the mechanism(s) underlying this phenomenon are unknown. Here, we apply RNA-seq after fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) of infected erythroblasts to identify transcriptional responses to direct and indirect interaction with P. falciparum. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of human erythroblasts sorted into populations and analyzed by RNA-seq. Transcriptomic profiles (4-6 biological replicates) were obtained from four cell types (proerythroblast, basophilic erythroblast, polychromatic erythroblast, orthochromatic erythroblast) in four treatment conditions (media-only, dead parasite (SRS, syringe-ruptured schizont), uninfected, infected).