Generation of rodent malaria parasite with high mutation rate and confirmation of its usefulness for next generation of malariology

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590501
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Parasitology (including Sanitary zoology)
• Research Institution: Juntendo University (2014-2015); Gunma University (2012-2013)
• Principal Investigator: Makoto Hirai 順天堂大学, 医学部, 准教授 (50326849)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: mutator malaria

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have succeeded to generate mutator malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei with destructed proof reading activity in DNA polymerase delta. We confirmed that the mutator malaria parasite shows 80 times higher mutation rate than wild-type parasite. Moreover, we succeeded to isolate several drug resistant parasites from mutator malaria parasite, which could be utilized for further research to reveal molecular mechanisms of parasite drug resistance. A series of these results provide the proof that our mutator parasite could be suitable research tool for parasite biology, especially drug resistance.

Free Research Field

分子寄生虫学