Developmental genetics of malaria parasites

该项目旨在提高我们对疟疾遗传学的理解。疟疾寄生虫的性周期发生在蚊子身上。性生活后，寄生虫的后代繁殖形成感染性孢子，通过蚊子叮咬注入人体。雄性和雌性疟疾寄生虫配子的发育及其融合产生二倍体合子是很好理解的，但随后的减数分裂过程、包囊阶段的发育和产生用于新感染的单倍体后代的产孢过程在分子遗传学方面知之甚少。该项目旨在利用啮齿动物疟疾模型剖析这些昆虫阶段的独特遗传学，以产生不同疟疾寄生虫系的杂交，以确定重组何时生效。

This project aims to improve our understanding of malarial genetics. The sexual cycle of malaria parasites occurs in mosquitoes. After sex, parasite progeny multiply to form infective spores that are injected into people by mosquito bite. Development of male and female malaria parasite gametes and their fusion to produce a diploid zygote are well understood, but the subsequent process of meiosis, development of a cyst stage and the sporogenic process to create haploid progeny for new infections are poorly understood in molecular genetic terms. The project aims to dissect the unique genetics of these insect stages using a rodent malaria model to generate crosses of different malaria parasite lines to determine when recombination takes effect.