New insights into the Plasmodium vivax transcriptome using RNA-Seq.
Lei Zhu, Sachel Mok, Mallika Imwong, Anchalee Jaidee, Bruce Russell, Francois Nosten, Nicholas P Day, Nicholas J White, Peter R Preiser, Zbynek Bozdech
Author Information
Lei Zhu: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Sachel Mok: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Mallika Imwong: Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Anchalee Jaidee: Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Mae Sot, Thailand.
Bruce Russell: Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Singapore, Singapore.
Francois Nosten: Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Nicholas P Day: Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Nicholas J White: Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Peter R Preiser: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Zbynek Bozdech: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Historically seen as a benign disease, it is now becoming clear that Plasmodium vivax can cause significant morbidity. Effective control strategies targeting P. vivax malaria is hindered by our limited understanding of vivax biology. Here we established the P. vivax transcriptome of the Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle (IDC) of two clinical isolates in high resolution by Illumina HiSeq platform. The detailed map of transcriptome generates new insights into regulatory mechanisms of individual genes and reveals their intimate relationship with specific biological functions. A transcriptional hotspot of vir genes observed on chromosome 2 suggests a potential active site modulating immune evasion of the Plasmodium parasite across patients. Compared to other eukaryotes, P. vivax genes tend to have unusually long 5' untranslated regions and also present multiple transcription start sites. In contrast, alternative splicing is rare in P. vivax but its association with the late schizont stage suggests some of its significance for gene function. The newly identified transcripts, including up to 179 vir like genes and 3018 noncoding RNAs suggest an important role of these gene/transcript classes in strain specific transcriptional regulation.
