Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress

Abstract Malaria parasites develop as oocysts in the mosquito for several days before they are able to infect a human host. During this time, mosquitoes take bloodmeals to replenish their nutrient and energy reserves needed for flight and reproduction. We hypothesized that these bloodmeals are criti...

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Autores principales:	Tibebu Habtewold, Aayushi A. Sharma, Claudia A. S. Wyer, Ellen K. G. Masters, Nikolai Windbichler, George K. Christophides
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c8442e288403435e844c9b9145d7d43b
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c8442e288403435e844c9b9145d7d43b2021-12-02T10:44:15ZPlasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress10.1038/s41598-021-81574-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c8442e288403435e844c9b9145d7d43b2021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81574-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Malaria parasites develop as oocysts in the mosquito for several days before they are able to infect a human host. During this time, mosquitoes take bloodmeals to replenish their nutrient and energy reserves needed for flight and reproduction. We hypothesized that these bloodmeals are critical for oocyst growth and that experimental infection protocols, typically involving a single bloodmeal at the time of infection, cause nutritional stress to the developing oocysts. Therefore, enumerating oocysts disregarding their growth and differentiation state may lead to erroneous conclusions about the efficacy of transmission blocking interventions. Here, we examine this hypothesis in Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes infected with the human and rodent parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei, respectively. We show that oocyst growth and maturation rates decrease at late developmental stages as infection intensities increase; an effect exacerbated at very high infection intensities but fully restored with post infection bloodmeals. High infection intensities and starvation conditions reduce RNA Polymerase III activity in oocysts unless supplemental bloodmeals are provided. Our results suggest that oocysts respond to crowding and nutritional stress with a dormancy-like strategy, which urges the development of alternative methods to assess the efficacy of transmission blocking interventions.Tibebu HabtewoldAayushi A. SharmaClaudia A. S. WyerEllen K. G. MastersNikolai WindbichlerGeorge K. ChristophidesNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Tibebu Habtewold Aayushi A. Sharma Claudia A. S. Wyer Ellen K. G. Masters Nikolai Windbichler George K. Christophides Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
description	Abstract Malaria parasites develop as oocysts in the mosquito for several days before they are able to infect a human host. During this time, mosquitoes take bloodmeals to replenish their nutrient and energy reserves needed for flight and reproduction. We hypothesized that these bloodmeals are critical for oocyst growth and that experimental infection protocols, typically involving a single bloodmeal at the time of infection, cause nutritional stress to the developing oocysts. Therefore, enumerating oocysts disregarding their growth and differentiation state may lead to erroneous conclusions about the efficacy of transmission blocking interventions. Here, we examine this hypothesis in Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes infected with the human and rodent parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei, respectively. We show that oocyst growth and maturation rates decrease at late developmental stages as infection intensities increase; an effect exacerbated at very high infection intensities but fully restored with post infection bloodmeals. High infection intensities and starvation conditions reduce RNA Polymerase III activity in oocysts unless supplemental bloodmeals are provided. Our results suggest that oocysts respond to crowding and nutritional stress with a dormancy-like strategy, which urges the development of alternative methods to assess the efficacy of transmission blocking interventions.
format	article
author	Tibebu Habtewold Aayushi A. Sharma Claudia A. S. Wyer Ellen K. G. Masters Nikolai Windbichler George K. Christophides
author_facet	Tibebu Habtewold Aayushi A. Sharma Claudia A. S. Wyer Ellen K. G. Masters Nikolai Windbichler George K. Christophides
author_sort	Tibebu Habtewold
title	Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
title_short	Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
title_full	Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
title_fullStr	Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
title_full_unstemmed	Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
title_sort	plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/c8442e288403435e844c9b9145d7d43b
work_keys_str_mv	AT tibebuhabtewold plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress AT aayushiasharma plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress AT claudiaaswyer plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress AT ellenkgmasters plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress AT nikolaiwindbichler plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress AT georgekchristophides plasmodiumoocystsrespondwithdormancytocrowdingandnutritionalstress
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Plasmodium oocysts respond with dormancy to crowding and nutritional stress

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