ArticleCell2017
Lysophosphatidylcholine Regulates Sexual Stage Differentiation in the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Article in Cell, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 188 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
188 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 379 citations in OpenAlex.
- Protocols for Plasmodium gametocyte production in vitro: an integrative review and analysis.Parasites & vectors · 2022Pooled it
- A Randomized Clinical Trial to Compare Plasmodium falciparum Gametocytemia and Infectivity After Blood-Stage or Mosquito Bite-Induced Controlled Malaria Infection.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2021Trial
- An assay to quantify sexual commitment and stage conversion in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.Nature protocols · 2026Review
- Article
- AP2-HS and a GDV1 regulatory feedback loop mediate environmental induction of sexual conversion in Plasmodium falciparum.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Histone H2B monoubiquitination drives sexual commitment in malaria parasites.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Elevated Plasmodium falciparum sexual conversion in HbAC and HbAS red blood cells in naturally infected malaria patients.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- The long and winding road: On the endoplasmic reticulum of Plasmodium and implications for pathogenesis.PLoS pathogens · 2026Review
- Identifying Transgenic Approaches to Mitigate Vector Transmission of Malaria by Anopheles gambiae.Cureus · 2026Review
- Characterisation of the thermal and non-thermal stress conditions that activate the Plasmodium falciparum AP2-HS-dependent heat-shock response.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- A prokaryotic-like cardiolipin synthase is essential to maintain mitochondrial function, lipid homeostasis, and survival of the blood stage malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- TgSEC14-LTP1 is a vacuole-secreted SEC14/CRAL-TRIO-like protein required for host DAG flux and PC homeostasis in T. gondii.Cell reports · 2026Article
- A heterologous marker-free selection approach for CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing in the malaria parasitemSphere · 2026Article
- Mechanistic insights into coordinated var transcriptional switching in malaria parasites.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Longitudinal plasma metabolomics reveals a role for taurine in asymptomatic malaria and seasonal persistence.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Long-term feeder cell-free cat intestinal organoid cultures to study Toxoplasma gondii's sexual development.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Molecular mechanisms involved inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- The inducible gametocyte producer (iGP1) strain is well-suited to produce both immature and mature gametocytes for subsequent drug sensitivity profiling.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Degradation of ribosomal RNA duringmBio · 2025Article
- Shared host, distinct invaders: metabolomic footprints of plasmodium and babesia in host red cells.Current opinion in hematology · 2025Review
128 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
28 authors at 10 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Transmission represents a population bottleneck in the Plasmodium life cycle and a key intervention target of ongoing efforts to eradicate malaria. Sexual differentiation is essential for this process, as only sexual parasites, called gametocytes, are infective to the mosquito vector. Gametocyte production rates vary depending on environmental conditions, but external stimuli remain obscure. Here, we show that the host-derived lipid lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC) controls P. falciparum cell fate by repressing parasite sexual differentiation. We demonstrate that exogenous LysoPC drives biosynthesis of the essential membrane component phosphatidylcholine. LysoPC restriction induces a compensatory response, linking parasite metabolism to the activation of sexual-stage-specific transcription and gametocyte formation. Our results reveal that malaria parasites can sense and process host-derived physiological signals to regulate differentiation. These data close a critical knowledge gap in parasite biology and introduce a major component of the sexual differentiation pathway in Plasmodium that may provide new approaches for blocking 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.