Transfection of Plasmodium falciparum within human red blood cells.

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.92.4.973
• Publication Date: 2006-05-31T13:26:40Z
• Authors: Y Wu; C D Sifri; H H Lei; X Z Su; T E Wellems
• Keywords: Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase

Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites within human red blood cells (RBCs) have been successfully transfected to produce chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT). Electroporation of parasitized RBCs was used introduce plasmids that CAT-encoding DNA flanked by 5' and 3' untranslated sequences the P. hsp86, hrp3, hrp2 genes. These flanking were required for expression as their excision abolished CAT activity in parasites. Transfection signals from native compared well with those a synthetic sequence adapted major codon bias, demonstrating effective bacterial despite its use rare codons. Transfected ring-stage produced at least strong schizont-stage even though ring stages are surrounded more RBC cytoplasm than schizonts. The transfection erythrocyte-stage advances our ability pursue genetic analysis this pathogen.