Dual RNA-sequencing of host and pathogen during Plasmodium berghei infection of hepatocytes in vitro

We report the dual RNA-sequencing of host and pathogen transcriptomes during Plasmodium berghei liver-stage development in vitro. Unlike traditional transcriptomic approaches that analyze RNA reads separately from host and pathogen, a dual-approach maps the mixed reads to each annotated genome within samples of pathogen-infected host cells. This is a powerful method, as host and pathogen transcriptomes can be analyzed simultaneously. We have taken advantage of this dual-RNA sequencing approach in order to gain insight into Plasmodium liver stage development within host hepatocytes. Huh7.5.1 hepatocytes were infected in vitro with P. berghei sporozoites freshly dissected from infected Anopheles stephansi mosquitos, and cells were collected throughout liver-stage development. This included samples collected at time zero (uninfected hepatocytes and sporozoites before infection), time 24 hours post infection (when the sporozoites have transformed into trophozoites), and time 48-50 hours post infection (when the trophozoites have transformed into liver-stage schizonts). Overall design: Dual RNA-sequencing of P. berghei-GFP and human RNA in infected and uninfected Huh7.5.1 cells