The Malaria Cell Atlas: a comprehensive reference of single parasite transcriptomes across the complete Plasmodium life cycle

Virginia M. Howick; Andrew J. C. Russell; Tallulah S. Andrews; Haynes Heaton; Adam James Reid; Kedar Nath Natarajan; Hellen Butungi; Tom Metcalf; Lisa H. Verzier; Julian C. Rayner; Matthew Berriman; Jeremy K. Herren; Oliver Billker; Martin Hemberg; Arthur M. Talman; Mara Lawniczak

doi:10.1126/science.aaw2619

GenomicsScienceAug 23, 2019

Peer-reviewed journal article

The Malaria Cell Atlas: a comprehensive reference of single parasite transcriptomes across the complete Plasmodium life cycle

Virginia M. Howick iD, Andrew J. C. Russell iD, Tallulah S. Andrews iD, Haynes Heaton iD, Adam James Reid iD, Kedar Nath Natarajan iD, Hellen Butungi iD, Tom Metcalf, Lisa H. Verzier iD, Julian C. Rayner iD, Matthew Berriman iD, Jeremy K. Herren iD, Oliver Billker iD, Martin Hemberg iD, Arthur M. Talman iD, Mara Lawniczak iD

Abstract

Malaria parasites adopt a remarkable variety of morphological life stages as they transition through multiple mammalian host and mosquito vector environments. Here we profile the single-cell transcriptomes of thousands of individual parasites, deriving the first high-resolution transcriptional atlas of the entire Plasmodium berghei life cycle. We then use our atlas to precisely define developmental stages of single cells from three different human malaria parasite species, including parasites isolated directly from infected individuals. The Malaria Cell Atlas provides both a comprehensive view of gene usage in a complex eukaryotic parasite and an open access reference data set for the study of malaria parasites.

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