Construction of Tagging and Knockdown Systems of the Serpentine Receptor 10 (SR10) in Plasmodium falciparum

• Grant number: 22/06132-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2022
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Célia Regina da Silva Garcia
• Grantee: Giovana Cavassani Travaini
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/08684-7 - Decoding Plasmodium signaling at molecular level as a new tool to the development of new antimalarials, AP.TEM

Abstract

Malaria is a disease transmitted through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes, which can be caused by Plasmodium falciparum, a parasiteresponsible for most severe cases of malaria in the world. Its life-cycle involves several stages, including a developmental intraerythrocytic stage, where the parasite invades its host's erythrocytic cells toundergo maturation and proliferate, continuing the infection.During this stage of asexual maturation and proliferation, manymechanisms come into play to regulate factors important todevelopment and parasite survival. Some of these mechanisms arecontrolled by stimuli received through serpentine receptors, proteins thatcontain seven transmembrane domains and are expressed at different stages of the cycle of the parasites. Among these receptors is SR10 that still has not had its function properly clarified, although there are indications and theories about it.Thus, the objective of this project is the development of geneticallymodified P. falciparum to carry out the tagging and gene knockdown of theSR10 receptor, seeking to perform subcellular localization and receptor functional analysis at different stages of theintraerythrocytic cycle of P. falciparum.