ArticlePLoS pathogens2011
Environmental constraints guide migration of malaria parasites during transmission.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Artificial intelligence powered decoding of Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite motility patterns.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Data selection choices influence the inferred movement patterns of Plasmodium sporozoites in skin.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Dynamic switching of cell-substrate contact sites allows gliding diatoms to modulate the curvature of their paths.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Traction force generation in Plasmodium sporozoites is modulated by a surface adhesin.Journal of microscopy · 2026Article
- Influence of biophysical and biochemical cues on Plasmodium sporozoite dynamics in skin tissue.Parasites & vectors · 2025Review
- Submicrometre spatiotemporal characterization of the Toxoplasma adhesion strategy for gliding motility.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- A geometrical theory of gliding motility based on cell shape and surface flow.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Deformability and collision-induced reorientation enhance cell topotaxis in dense microenvironments.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Screening the Pathogen Box for Inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum Sporozoite Motility Reveals a Critical Role for Kinases in Transmission Stages.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2022Article
- Transcending Dimensions in Apicomplexan Research: from Two-Dimensional to Three-DimensionalMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2022Review
- Thrombospondin Related Anonymous Protein Superfamily in Vector-Borne Apicomplexans: The Parasite's Toolkit for Cell Invasion.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Tunable 3D Hydrogel Microchannel Networks to Study Confined Mammalian Cell Migration.Advanced healthcare materials · 2021Article
- Limited Plasmodium sporozoite gliding motility in the absence of TRAP family adhesins.Malaria journal · 2021Article
- Naturally Acquired Antibodies againstPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Comparative intravital imaging of human and rodent malaria sporozoites reveals the skin is not a species-specific barrier.EMBO molecular medicine · 2021Article
- Malaria parasites differentially sense environmental elasticity during transmission.EMBO molecular medicine · 2021Article
- Article
- Experimental determination of the force of malaria infection reveals a non-linear relationship to mosquito sporozoite loads.PLoS pathogens · 2020Article
- Migration of Microparticle-Containing Amoeba through Constricted Environments.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Migrating cells are guided in complex environments mainly by chemotaxis or structural cues presented by the surrounding tissue. During transmission of malaria, parasite motility in the skin is important for Plasmodium sporozoites to reach the blood circulation. Here we show that sporozoite migration varies in different skin environments the parasite encounters at the arbitrary sites of the mosquito bite. In order to systematically examine how sporozoite migration depends on the structure of the environment, we studied it in micro-fabricated obstacle arrays. The trajectories observed in vivo and in vitro closely resemble each other suggesting that structural constraints can be sufficient to guide Plasmodium sporozoites in complex environments. Sporozoite speed in different environments is optimized for migration and correlates with persistence length and dispersal. However, this correlation breaks down in mutant sporozoites that show adhesion impairment due to the lack of TRAP-like protein (TLP) on their surfaces. This may explain their delay in infecting the host. The flexibility of sporozoite adaption to different environments and a favorable speed for optimal dispersal ensures efficient host switching during malaria transmission.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.