PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM (CLONE

3D7)

Lisa Port

GENERAL INFORMATION
One of the species of Plasmodium that causes malaria in humans
Most dangerous form of malaria

Transmitted through the female Anopheles mosquito

There are 300 million cases annually
Results in at least one million deaths annually

Over 75% of cases caused by P. falciparum

MAP OF MALARIA
P. Falciparum predominates in Africa, south of the Sahara

GENERAL BIOLOGY
It is a Protozoan parasite
Complex life cycle
Requires human and mosquito host
Differentiates multiple times through
infection process

GENERAL BIOLOGY CONTINUED

Member of the apicomplexan phylum which contains an organelle called the
apicoplast. It is an essential plastid, its function remains somewhat of a
mystery.
It also has a mitochondria

TREE OF LIFE
Domain:

Eukarya

Kingdom:

Chromalveolat
a

Phylum:

Apicomplexa

Class:

Aconoidasida

Order:

Haemosporida

Family:

Plasmodiidae

Genus:

Plasmodium

STRUCTURE OF GENOME
Size: 23,270,305 bp
Chromosomes: 14
Number of genes: ~5,300

INTERESTING FACT
The genome has an usually low percentage (19.36%) of GC base pairings.

GENOMIC MAP

RECENT SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE

Sickle Cell Trait Protects AgainstPlasmodium falciparumInfection
(2012)
American Journal of Epidemiology

Sickle cell trait protests against severe disease due to Plasmodium falciparum
Question: Does it Protest against asymptomatic infection (parasitemia)?
They followed a group of 171 smear-negative children and 450 asymptomatic
smear-positive
children in Mali for 2 years
Found that the children who were smear negative took longer to convert to smearpositive if they had the sickle cell trait compared to children without it
Found that the children who were smear positive and contained the sickle cell trait
converted
quicker to smear-negative, than those who did not have the trait
*Conclusion: Sickle-cell trait protects against asymptomatic P. falciparum infection.