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Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Author Spotlight: Whole-Mount Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization to Study Spermatogenesis in the Anopheles Mosquito
Published on: May 26, 2023
Atypical flagella assembly and haploid genome coiling during male gamete formation in Plasmodium
Molly Hair1, Flávia Moreira-Leite1, David J P Ferguson1
1Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK.
Abstract:
Gametogenesis in Plasmodium spp. occurs within the Anopheles mosquito and is essential for sexual reproduction / differentiation and onwards transmission to mammalian hosts. To better understand the 3D organisation of male gametogenesis, we used serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) and serial-section cellular electron tomography (ssET) of P. berghei microgametocytes to examine key structures during male gamete formation. Our data reveals an elaborate organisation of axonemes coiling around the nucleus in opposite directions forming a central axonemal band in microgametocytes. Furthermore, we discover the nucleus of microgametes to be tightly coiled around the axoneme in a complex structure whose formation starts before microgamete emergence during exflagellation. Our discoveries of the detailed 3D organisation of the flagellated microgamete and the haploid genome highlight some of the atypical mechanisms of axoneme assembly and haploid genome organisation during male gamete formation in the malaria parasite.
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