[Malaria control in the post-genomic era]

With the publication of seminal articles on the genomic sequence of Plasmodium falciparum and P. yoelii yoelii last autumn following the articles on genome of Anopheles gambiae, man, and mice, malariology stepped indubitably into a new era. A major finding of genome annotation is that nearly 60% of Plasmodium sp. have no functional attribution and that a high proportion of P. falciparum sequences have no counterpart in P. yoelii. In the light of these findings it will now be possible to explore the specificities of the Plasmodium genus and particularities of each species--and ultimately the relevance of animal malaria models. Numerous avenues of research have been opened not only for drug discovery, vaccine development, dissecting the cascade of events contributing to pathology or protection, but also for population biology studies and analysis of genetic exchanges within field parasite populations. The field has been radically changed, and coordinated efforts are needed to implement the powerful post genomic technologies. There is an urgent need to exploit this huge mass of new data for the development of new control methods. This development requires a rational approach of functional genomics and integrative biology. The purpose of this article is to briefly summarize current data and discuss experimental approaches and perspectives.