Cloning of Plasmodium falciparum by single-cell sorting

Jun Miao, Xiaolian Li, Liwang Cui

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Malaria parasite cloning is traditionally carried out mainly by using the limiting dilution method, which is laborious, imprecise, and unable to distinguish multiply-infected RBCs. In this study, we used a parasite engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) to evaluate a single-cell sorting method for rapidly cloning Plasmodium falciparum. By dividing a two-dimensional scattergram from a cell sorter into 17 gates, we determined the parameters for isolating singly-infected erythrocytes and sorted them into individual cultures. Pre-gating of the engineered parasites for GFP allowed the isolation of almost 100% GFP-positive clones. Compared with the limiting dilution method, the number of parasite clones obtained by single-cell sorting was much higher. Molecular analyses showed that parasite isolates obtained by single-cell sorting were highly homogenous. This highly efficient single-cell sorting method should prove very useful for cloning both P. falciparum laboratory populations from genetic manipulation experiments and clinical samples.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)198-202
Number of pages5
JournalExperimental Parasitology
Volume126
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Parasitology
  • Immunology
  • Infectious Diseases

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cloning of Plasmodium falciparum by single-cell sorting'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this