NSR-seq transcriptional profiling enables identification of a gene signature of Plasmodium falciparum parasites infecting children.

ABSTRACT: Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum results in approximately 1 million annual deaths worldwide, with young children and pregnant mothers at highest risk. Disease severity might be related to parasite virulence factors, but expression profiling studies of parasites to test this hypothesis have been hindered by extensive sequence variation in putative virulence genes and a preponderance of host RNA in clinical samples. We report here the application of RNA sequencing to clinical isolates of P. falciparum, using not-so-random (NSR) primers to successfully exclude human ribosomal RNA and globin transcripts and enrich for parasite transcripts. Using NSR-seq, we confirmed earlier microarray studies showing upregulation of a distinct subset of genes in parasites infecting pregnant women, incl

SUBMITTER: Vignali M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3046638 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature