Conditional expression of PfAP2-G for controlled massive sexual conversion in <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i>
Oriol Llorà-Batlle, Lucas Michel-Todó, Kathrin Witmer, Haruka Toda, Carmen Fernández-Becerra, Jake Baum, Alfred Cortés
Abstract
, based on conditional expression of the PfAP2-G transcription factor. Using this system, ~90 percent of the parasites converted into sexual forms upon induction, enabling the characterization of committed and early sexual stages without further purification. We characterized sexually committed schizonts and sexual rings at the transcriptomic and phenotypic levels, which revealed down-regulation of genes involved in solute transport upon sexual commitment, among other findings. The new inducible lines will facilitate the study of early sexual stages at additional levels, including multiomic characterization and drug susceptibility assays.