Single_Cell_Transcriptomics_on_Field_Parasites_of_Plasmodium_ovale

Single cell atlases have become a valuable tool for malaria research, allowing the assessment of transcriptional patterns across the entire lifecycle, helping to ascribe function to unknown genes based on their co-expression with known genes, and being useful to help deconvolve bulk sequenced samples. Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale are becoming increasingly problematic in malaria-endemic regions, with reports of drug resistance and predominance in the low transmission season. Transcriptional data resources for these species are sorely lacking. Here, we use single cell transcriptomics to characterise circulating sexual and asexual populations of Plasmodium ovale from the blood of infected individuals in an endemic region in Mali, generating the first single cell atlases of field strains of this species. Moreover, long and short read sequencing of the transcriptomes supports improved reference annotation for this under-studied species. Data from this study will be available as part of the Malaria Cell Atlas website and data resource.