Cellular hallmarks from volume electron microscopy reveal developmental progression of plasmodium ookinetesShow others and affiliations
2026 (English)In: Advanced Science, E-ISSN 2198-3844, Vol. 13, no 4, article id e08250Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Unicellular organisms or cells of metazoans often change their morphology during development or life cycle progression to adapt to environmental changes. Malaria parasites undergo a striking range of morphological transformations as they navigate through the different environments of mammalian hosts and mosquito vectors. These developmental transitions are accompanied by changes in the subcellular organelles. Here, this work introduces an unbiased approach using volume electron microscopy (vEM) to facilitate cluster analyses of morphometric parameters during developmental transformation. Investigating the transformation of fertilized Plasmodium zygotes into the motile ookinetes with three complementary vEM techniques revealed intimate mitochondrion-nucleus interactions, different microtubule arrangements, elongated shapes of micronemes and their close interaction with the apicoplast. The presented data and approach provide an open-access subcellular atlas for ookinete development to aid mechanistic molecular insights from reverse genetic studies and a framework for the ultrastructural study of other parasite stages and developmental transitions in general.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Wiley-VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, 2026. Vol. 13, no 4, article id e08250
Keywords [en]
developmental biology, malaria, Plasmodium, single cell development, ultrastructural atlas, volume electron microscopy
National Category
Cell and Molecular Biology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-245598DOI: 10.1002/advs.202508250ISI: 001583698000001PubMedID: 41025598Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105018199070OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-245598DiVA, id: diva2:2007125
Funder
German Research Foundation (DFG), 240245660Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLabSwedish Foundation for Strategic Research, RIF21-00672025-10-172025-10-172026-03-17Bibliographically approved