ArticleMalaria journal2021
Ecology of asynchronous asexual replication: the intraerythrocytic development cycle of Plasmodium berghei is resistant to host rhythms.
Article in Malaria journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond the mouse: organoids, spheroids, and organs-on-chips as the (inevitable) future of malaria research?Malaria journal · 2026Review
- Time-of-day of infection: impact on liver stage malaria parasites in untreated and drug-treated hosts.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Plasmodium yoelii as a model for malaria: insights into pathogenesis, drug resistance, and vaccine development.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Testing the evolutionary drivers of malaria parasite rhythms and their consequences for host-parasite interactions.Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Time of day and circadian disruption influence host response and parasite growth in a mouse model of cerebral malaria.iScience · 2024Article
- Coordination of apicoplast transcription in a malaria parasite by internal and host cues.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDaily periodicity in the diverse activities of parasites occurs across a broad taxonomic range. The rhythms exhibited by parasites are thought to be adaptations that allow parasites to cope with, or exploit, the consequences of host activities that follow daily rhythms. Malaria parasites (Plasmodium) are well-known for their synchronized cycles of replication within host red blood cells. Whilst most species of Plasmodium appear sensitive to the timing of the daily rhythms of hosts, and even vectors, some species present no detectable rhythms in blood-stage replication. Why the intraerythrocytic development cycle (IDC) of, for example Plasmodium chabaudi, is governed by host rhythms, yet seems completely independent of host rhythms in Plasmodium berghei, another rodent malaria species, is mysterious.
methodsThis study reports a series of five experiments probing the relationships between the asynchronous IDC schedule of P. berghei and the rhythms of hosts and vectors by manipulating host time-of-day, photoperiod and feeding rhythms.
resultsThe results reveal that: (i) a lack coordination between host and parasite rhythms does not impose appreciable fitness costs on P. berghei; (ii) the IDC schedule of P. berghei is impervious to host rhythms, including altered photoperiod and host-feeding-related rhythms; (iii) there is weak evidence for daily rhythms in the density and activities of transmission stages; but (iv), these rhythms have little consequence for successful transmission to mosquitoes.
conclusionsOverall, host rhythms do not affect the performance of P. berghei and its asynchronous IDC is resistant to the scheduling forces that underpin synchronous replication in closely related parasites. This suggests that natural variation in the IDC schedule across species represents different parasite strategies that maximize fitness. Thus, subtle differences in the ecological interactions between parasites and their hosts/vectors may select for the evolution of very different IDC schedules.
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