Inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum clag9 gene function by antisense RNA

We have previously shown by targeted gene disruption that the clag9 gene of Plasmodium falciparum is essential for cytoadherence to CD36. Here we report inhibition of the function of clag9 by the use of an antisense RNA vector as an alternative to targeted gene disruption. We transfected an antisense construct of clag9 into the P. falciparum clone 3D7 and when the resulting line was cultured in the presence of pyrimethamine it showed 15-fold lower cytoadherence to C32 melanoma cells than the control. Reversion to wildtype upon removal of the introduced plasmid provides direct evidence that the event responsible for the phenotypic change is not at an unrelated site and this approach provides a valuable new tool in malaria transfection technology.