Malaria is a devastating infectious parasitic disease that affects more than 200 million people worldwide every year. The most virulent causative agent is Plasmodium (P.) falciparum, which alternates its life cycle between the human host and the Anopheles mosquito vector. P. falciparum infects red blood cells where it replicates asexually, while only a small subset of the population differentiates into the transmissible sexual forms, gametocytes. Gametocyte development is essential for onward infection and is considered a key vulnerability in the fight to reduce transmission. The sexual commitment process, gametocytogenesis, comprises five morphologically and transcriptionally distinct stages with well-characterized genetic markers. While a few genetic regulators of gametocytogenesis (Pfap2-g) have been identified, our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying this process is poor. Thus, there is an emerging need to develop high-throughput methods for evaluating sexual differentiation through gene expression profiling.
Here we developed a qPCR-dependent and robot-automatized transcriptional profile platform to directly monitor multiple genetic markers throughout the entire gametocytogenesis process (e.g. Pfap2-g, gexp05, Pfg14.744, Pfg14.748 and Pfs16). This platform allows a high-throughput screening for conditions that may affect the genetic regulation of the parasitic sexual differentiation. Using our advanced technology, we monitored the temporal changes in the gene expression under different antimalarial drug treatments and demonstrated significant Pfap2-g upregulation under dihydroartemisinin (DHA) treatment. This platform offers a robust, systematic and high-throughput platform to screen for novel candidate factors that may alter the transcription dynamics of gametocyte gene markers, allowing the detection of novel host- and parasite-derived regulators.

Malaria is a devastating infectious parasitic disease that affects more than 200 million people worldwide every year. The most virulent causative agent is _Plasmodium (P.) falciparum,_ which alternates its life cycle between the human host and the _Anopheles_ mosquito vector. _P. falciparum_ infects red blood cells where it replicates asexually, while only a small subset of the population differentiates into the transmissible sexual forms, gametocytes. Gametocyte development is essential for onward infection and is considered a key vulnerability in the fight to reduce transmission. The sexual commitment process, gametocytogenesis, comprises five morphologically and transcriptionally distinct stages with well-characterized genetic markers. While a few genetic regulators of gametocytogenesis (_Pfap2-g_) have been identified, our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying this process is poor. Thus, there is an emerging need to develop high-throughput methods for evaluating sexual differentiation through gene expression profiling.
Here we developed a qPCR-dependent and robot-automatized transcriptional profile platform to directly monitor multiple genetic markers throughout the entire gametocytogenesis process (e.g. _Pfap2-g, gexp05, Pfg14.744, Pfg14.748_ and _Pfs16_). This platform allows a high-throughput screening for conditions that may affect the genetic regulation of the parasitic sexual differentiation. Using our advanced technology, we monitored the temporal changes in the gene expression under different antimalarial drug treatments and demonstrated significant _Pfap2-g_ upregulation under dihydroartemisinin (DHA) treatment. This platform offers a robust, systematic and high-throughput platform to screen for novel candidate factors that may alter the transcription dynamics of gametocyte gene markers, allowing the detection of novel host- and parasite-derived regulators.

Automated transcription profiling to monitor malaria parasite sexual differentiation

Exploring the intricacies of host-pathogen communication is vital in order to understand why
some microbes persist within a host, while others are effectively cleared. As such,
host-pathogen communication is an urgent area of research underpinning human health
and disease, especially given the emerging concerns of antibiotic resistance.
Understanding host-pathogen pathways requires intricate knowledge in the fields of both
microbiology and immunology.

Living in a world of specialists, where scientists sometimes invest their whole career
studying one organism, a specific pathway or a protein, multidisciplinary discussions of
host-pathogen interactions are highly needed. This international conference will provide
such a forum for scientific exchange at the highest level, between scientists from different
research areas related to host-pathogen interactions, with the aim to trigger fruitful
collaborations addressing the urgent questions in the field.

This meeting has an additional special focus of bringing researchers from Ireland, Denmark
and Israel together to learn about cutting edge biology and form new collaborations.
Thus, the conference will be a showcase for the exciting and original research emanating
from these three small but innovative countries.