Extra seminar on Malaria - Professor John Adams

Seminar

Date: Wednesday 23 October 2024

Time: 15.00 – 16.00

Location: Vivi Täckholmsalen

Professor John Adams has had a tremendous impact on the malaria research field, and is giving a seminar at Stockholm University on the 23rd of October.

By:

Professor John Adams

Distinguished Professor,
Director, USF Genomics Program,
Co-Director, Center for Global Health & Inter-Disciplinary Research,
College of Public Health,
University of South Florida

Title:

Supersaturation mutagenesis of Plasmodium knowlesi reveals adaptive rewiring of essential genes among malaria parasites

Host:

Johan Ankarklev, Department of Molecular Biosciences, Stockholm University

Abstract:

Malaria parasites are highly divergent from model eukaryotes. Large-scale genome engineering methods effective in model organisms are frequently inapplicable, and systematic studies of gene function are few. We generated >175,000 transposon insertions in the Plasmodium knowlesi genome, averaging an insertion every 138bp, and used this ‘supersaturation’ mutagenesis to score essentiality for 98% of genes. The density of mutations allowed mapping essential domains within genes, providing a completely new level of genome annotation for any Plasmodium species. While gene essentiality was largely conserved across P. knowlesi, P. falciparum, and rodent malaria model P. berghei, up to ~20% of shared genes are differentially essential, revealing species-specific adaptations. Our results indicated Plasmodium essential gene evolution was conditionally linked to adaptive rewiring of metabolic networks for different hosts.