Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum, the parasites responsible for most human malaria worldwide, exhibit striking biological differences, which have important clinical consequences. Unfortunately, P. vivax, unlike P. falciparum, cannot be cultivated continuously in vitro, which limits our understanding of its biology and, consequently, our ability to effectively control vivax malaria. Here, we describe single-cell gene expression profiles of 9,215 P. vivax parasites from bloodstream infections of Aotus and Saimiri monkeys. Our results show that transcription of most P. vivax genes occurs during short periods of the intraerythrocytic cycle and that this pattern of gene expression is conserved in other Plasmodium species. However, we also identify a strikingly high proportion of species-specific transcripts in late schizonts, possibly associated with the specificity of erythrocyte invasion. Our findings provide new and robust markers of blood-stage parasites, including some that are specific to the elusive P. vivax male gametocytes, and will be useful for analyzing gene expression data from laboratory and field samples.

中文翻译：

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间日疟原虫血液阶段寄生虫的单细胞转录分析确定了阶段和物种特异性表达谱。

间日疟原虫和恶性疟原虫是造成全球大多数人类疟疾的寄生虫，表现出惊人的生物学差异，具有重要的临床意义。不幸的是，与恶性疟原虫不同，间日疟原虫不能在体外连续培养，这限制了我们对其生物学的理解，因此限制了我们有效控制间日疟疾的能力。在这里，我们描述了来自Aotus和Saimiri猴子的血液感染的9,215个间日疟原虫的单细胞基因表达谱。我们的结果表明，大多数间日疟原虫基因的转录发生在红细胞内周期的短时间内，并且这种基因表达模式在其他疟原虫物种中得以保留。但是，我们还发现在裂殖体后期，物种特异性转录本的比例非常高，可能与红细胞侵袭的特异性有关。我们的发现为血液阶段寄生虫提供了新的，强大的标记，其中包括一些对可捉摸的间日疟原虫雄配子体细胞特异的标记，对于分析实验室和田间样品的基因表达数据非常有用。