The study of genetic diversity in malaria populations is expected to provide new insights for the deployment of control measures. Plasmodium falciparum diversity in Africa and Asia is thought to reflect endemicity. In comprehensive epidemiological surveys reported here the genetic and antigenic structure of P. falciparum in the Venezuelan Amazon were studied over a 2-year period. DNA polymorphi...

The genetic immunization of rodents with a plasmid coding for a Plasmodium chabaudi merozoite surface protein 1 (C terminus)-hepatitis B virus surface fusion protein (pPcMSP1(19)-HBs) provided protection of mice against subsequent lethal challenge with P. chabaudi chabaudi PC1-infected red blood cells. The percentage of survivor mice was higher in DNA-immunized mice than in animals immunized wi...

A major challenge facing malaria vaccine development programs is identifying efficacious combinations of antigens. To date, merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) is regarded as the leading asexual vaccine candidate. Apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) has been identified as another leading candidate for an asexual malaria vaccine, but without any direct in vivo evidence that a recombinant form of Pla...

Naturally acquired immunity to Plasmodium falciparum presents a changing landscape as malaria control programs and vaccine initiatives are implemented. Determining which immunologic indicators remain surrogates of past infection, as opposed to mediators of protection, led us to compare stability of immune responses across regions with divergent malaria transmission intensities. A repeat cross-s...

Dissection of the genetic pathways and mechanisms by which anther development occurs in grasses is crucial for both a basic understanding of plant development and for examining traits of agronomic importance such as male sterility. In rice, MULTIPLE SPOROCYTES1 (MSP1), a leucine-rich-repeat receptor kinase, plays an important role in anther development by limiting the number of sporocytes. OsTD...

Merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) is a highly polymorphic Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein implicated in the invasion of human erythrocytes during the asexual cycle. It forms a complex with MSP6 and MSP7 on the merozoite surface, and this complex is released from the parasite around the time of erythrocyte invasion. MSP1 and many other merozoite surface proteins contain dimorphi...

asymptomatic malaria (asm) has been implicated in the development of hemolytic crisis in infected sickle cell anemia (sca) patients worldwide. this study surveyed steady state sca nigerian patients for asm to investigate the influence of malaria prevention behaviors and age on parasitaemia and multiplicity of infection (moi). a total of 78 steady sca patients aged 5 – 27 years on routine care a...

Intracellular protein localization is critical for establishing organelle identity, avoiding inappropriate interactions, and maintaining cellular function. An emerging mechanism for ensuring high-fidelity protein localization is the selective destruction of mislocalized copies. Two new papers find that the mitochondrial outer membrane is kept free of mislocalized proteins by Msp1 (Chen et al, 2...

BACKGROUND Heterogeneity in malaria exposure complicates survival analyses of vaccine efficacy trials and confounds the association between immune correlates of protection and malaria infection in longitudinal studies. Analysis may be facilitated by taking into account the variability in individual exposure levels, but it is unclear how exposure can be estimated at an individual level. METHOD...