Salif Yirampo

Abstract Plasmodium parasites caused over 600,000 deaths in 2022. In Mali, P. falciparum is responsible for the majority of malaria cases and deaths and is transmitted seasonally. Anti-malarial immunity develops slowly over repeated exposures to P. falciparum but some aspects of this immunity (e.g., antibody titers) wane during the non-transmission, dry season. Here, we sequenced RNA from 33 pediatric blood samples collected during P.

Abstract In Bandiagara, Mali, children experience on average two clinical malaria episodes per season. However, even in the same transmission area, the number of uncomplicated symptomatic infections, and their parasitemia, vary dramatically among children.

Plasmodium gene expression differs more by species than by infected host RNA-seq data generated directly from infected blood samples enables simultaneous characterization of host and parasite gene expression and we next focused on examining differences in parasite gene expression. To compare the gene expression of P. falciparum and P. ovale parasites during symptomatic infections, we only included 2,631 expressed genes that had one-to-one orthologs in both species (see Material and Methods).