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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Plasmodium falciparum Gametocyte Culture and Mosquito Infection Through Artificial Membrane Feeding
Published on: July 3, 2020
Triggers and tricks of Plasmodium sexual development
Taco Wa Kooij1, Kai Matuschewski
1Department of Parasitology, Heidelberg University School of Medicine, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. taco.kooij@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Abstract:
Irrespective of the tremendous suffering caused by malaria, a Plasmodium infection by pathogenic blood stages is only transient and an obligate step toward the Anopheles vector where sexual reproduction and genetic recombination of the unicellular parasite takes place. Recent expression profiling studies identified the molecular make-up of female and male gametocytes. Differential promoters and translational repression through mRNA binding by a female-specific helicase help to fine-tune the expression of these sexual stage-specific genes. However, we are only just beginning to discover the triggers that initiate gametocytogenesis and the developmental programs that drive sexual development.
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