Quantification of female and male Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes by reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR

Schneider, Petra, Reece, Sarah E., van Schaijk, Ben C.L., Bousema, Teun, Lanke, Kjerstin H.W., Meaden, Cora S.J., Gadalla, Amal ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3131-725X, Ranford-Cartwright, Lisa C. and Babiker, Hamza A. 2015. Quantification of female and male Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes by reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 199 (1-2) , pp. 29-33. 10.1016/j.molbiopara.2015.03.006

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (0B)

Abstract

The transmission of malaria parasites depends on the presence of sexual stages (gametocytes) in the blood, making the ratio and densities of female and male gametocytes important determinants of parasite fitness. This manuscript describes the development of reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assays to separately quantify mature female and male gametocytes of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and reveals that Pfs25 mRNA is expressed only in female gametocytes. The female (Pfs25) and male (Pfs230p) gametocyte specific RT-qPCR assays have lower detection limits of 0.3 female and 1.8 male gametocytes per microlitre of blood, respectively, making them more sensitive than microscopy. Accurate quantification of the ratio and densities of female and male gametocytes will increase understanding of P. falciparum transmission and improve the evaluation of transmission blocking interventions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0166-6851
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 January 2021
Date of Acceptance:	19 March 2015
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2022 09:55
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137628

Citation Data

Cited 48 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item