英国剑桥大学维康桑格研究所Mara K. N. Lawniczak研究组研究绘制疟疾细胞图谱：疟原虫整个生命周期的单个寄生虫转录组。相关论文于2019年8月23日发表于国际学术期刊《科学》杂志上。

研究人员描述了数千个寄生虫的单细胞转录组，得到了整个伯氏疟原虫生命周期的第一个高分辨率转录图谱。然后研究人员利用该图谱精确定义了来自三个不同人类疟疾寄生虫物种的单细胞发育阶段，包括直接从感染者中分离的寄生虫。疟疾细胞图谱提供了一个真核生物寄生虫基因表达的轮廓，以及提供了一个研究疟原虫的开放参考数据库。

据悉，疟疾寄生虫采用多样的生命形态变化来适应多种哺乳动物宿主和周围寄生环境的变化。

附：英文原文

Title: The Malaria Cell Atlas: Single parasite transcriptomes across the complete Plasmodium life cycle

Author: Virginia M. Howick, Andrew J. C. Russell, Tallulah Andrews, Haynes Heaton, Adam J. Reid, Kedar Natarajan, Hellen Butungi, Tom Metcalf, Lisa H. Verzier, Julian C. Rayner, Matthew Berriman, Jeremy K. Herren, Oliver Billker, Martin Hemberg, Arthur M. Talman, Mara K. N. Lawniczak

Issue&Volume: Volume 365 Issue 6455

Abstract: Malaria parasites adopt a remarkable variety of morphological life stages as they transition through multiple mammalian host and mosquito vector environments. We profiled the single-cell transcriptomes of thousands of individual parasites, deriving the first high-resolution transcriptional atlas of the entire Plasmodium berghei life cycle. We then used our atlas to precisely define developmental stages of single cells from three different human malaria parasite species, including parasites isolated directly from infected individuals. The Malaria Cell Atlas provides both a comprehensive view of gene usage in a eukaryotic parasite and an open-access reference dataset for the study of malaria parasites.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw2619

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6455/eaaw2619