Mistimed malaria parasites re-synchronize with host feeding-fasting rhythms by shortening the duration of intra-erythrocytic development.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Malaria parasites exhibit daily rhythms in the intra-erythrocytic development cycle (IDC) that underpins asexual replication in the blood. The IDC schedule is aligned with the timing of host feeding-fasting rhythms. When the IDC schedule is perturbed to become mismatched to host rhythms, it readily reschedules but it is not known how.

Methods

We intensively follow four groups of infections that have different temporal alignments between host rhythms and the IDC schedule for 10 days, before and after the peak in asexual densities. We compare how the duration, synchrony and timing of the IDC differs between parasites in control infections and those forced to reschedule by 12 hours and ask whether the density of parasites affects the rescheduling process.

Results and co

SUBMITTER: O'Donnell AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285586 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature