Sunil Kumar Dogga

Wellcome Sanger Institute · Malaria Programme

The complex life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum requires coordinated gene expression regulation to allow host cell invasion, transmission, and immune evasion. Increasing evidence now suggests a major role for epigenetic mechanisms in gene expression in the parasite. In eukaryotes, many lncRNAs have been identified to be pivotal regulators of genome...

The developmental decision made by malaria parasites to become sexual underlies all malaria transmission. Here, we describe a rich atlas of short and long-read single-cell transcriptomes of over 37,000 Plasmodium falciparum cells across intraerythrocytic asexual and sexual development. We used the atlas to explore transcriptional modules and exon u...

This protocol isolates circulating sexual and asexual Plasmodium parasites from an infected individual's blood such that the resulting parasites are viable for single cell RNA sequencing, as well as bulk RNA sequencing and genome sequencing. The important features of the protocol include (i) preventing the activation of gametocytes by re-suspending...

Studying malaria transmission biology using scRNA-sequencing provides information on within-host strain diversity and transcriptional states. Here, we comment on our collaborative efforts at establishing single-cell capacities in sub-Saharan Africa and the challenges encountered in Mali’s endemic setting.

Virulence and persistence of the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii involve the secretion of effector proteins belonging to the family of dense granule proteins (GRAs) that act notably as modulators of the host defense mechanisms and participate in cyst wall formation. Subset of GRAs residing in the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) or ex...

The complex life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum requires coordinated gene expression regulation to allow host cell invasion, transmission, and immune evasion. However, this cascade of transcripts is unlikely to be regulated by the limited number of identified parasite-specific transcription factors. Increasing evidence now suggests a major role for...

The evolution of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus leads to new variants that warrant timely epidemiological characterization. Here we use the dense genomic surveillance data generated by the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium to reconstruct the dynamics of 71 different lineages in each of 315 English local authori...

Malaria parasites have a complex life cycle featuring diverse developmental strategies, each uniquely adapted to navigate specific host environments. Here we use single-cell transcriptomics to illuminate gene usage across the transmission cycle of the most virulent agent of human malaria - Plasmodium falciparum . We reveal developmental trajectorie...

Malaria parasites have a complex life cycle featuring diverse developmental strategies, each uniquely adapted to navigate specific host environments. Here we use single-cell transcriptomics to illuminate gene usage across the transmission cycle of the most virulent agent of human malaria – Plasmodium falciparum . We reveal developmental trajectorie...

Two palmitoyl acyltransferases involved sequentially in the biogenesis of the inner membrane complex of Toxoplasma gondii

Background Acetyl-CoA is a key molecule in all organisms, implicated in several metabolic pathways as well as in transcriptional regulation and post-translational modification. The human pathogen Toxoplasma gondii possesses at least four enzymes which generate acetyl-CoA in the nucleo-cytosol (acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACS); ATP citrate lyase (ACL)),...

The phylum Apicomplexa includes a number of significant human pathogens like Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium species. These obligate intracellular parasites possess a membranous structure, the inner membrane complex (IMC), composed of flattened vesicles apposed to the plasma membrane. Numerous proteins associated with the IMC are anchored via a li...

In rodents, the decrease of felid aversion induced by Toxoplasma gondii, a phenomenon termed fatal attraction, is interpreted as an adaptive manipulation by the neurotropic protozoan parasite. With the aim of understanding how the parasite induces such specific behavioral modifications, we performed a multiparametric analysis of T. gondii-induced c...

The cover image is a lino-cut print that represents a fearless mouse facing different predators. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii is known to manipulate the behavior of rodent hosts by converting their innate fear of felids into attraction, thereby increasing parasite transmission rate to felid hosts. Boillat et al. report that loss of fear induced b...

Background: The complex life cycle of malaria parasites requires well-orchestrated stage specific gene expression. In the vertebrate host the parasites grow and multiply by schizogony in two different environments: within erythrocytes and within hepatocytes. Whereas erythrocytic parasites are well-studied in this respect, relatively little is know...

The complex life cycle of malaria parasites requires well-orchestrated stage specific gene expression. In the vertebrate host the parasites grow and multiply by schizogony in two different environments: within erythrocytes and within hepatocytes. Whereas erythrocytic parasites are rather well-studied in this respect, relatively little is known abou...

Invasion and egress are two key steps in the lytic cycle of Apicomplexa that are governed by the sequential discharge of proteins from two apical secretory organelles called micronemes and rhoptries. In Toxoplasma gondii, the biogenesis of these specialized organelles depends on the post Golgi trafficking machinery, forming an endosomal‐like compar...

On the cover: A Toxoplasma gondii transporter essential for microneme secretion

Micronemes and rhoptries are specialized secretory organelles that deploy their contents at the apical tip of apicomplexan parasites in a regulated manner. The secretory proteins participate in motility, invasion, and egress and are subjected to proteolytic maturation prior to organellar storage and discharge. Here we establish that Toxoplasma gond...

The immune mapped protein 1 (IMP1) was first identified as a protective antigen in Eimeria maxima and described as vaccine candidate and invasion factor in Toxoplasma gondii. We show here that TgIMP1 localizes to the inner leaflet of plasma membrane (PM) via dual acylation. Mutations either in the N-terminal myristoylation or palmitoylation sites (...

Rhomboids are a well-conserved class of intramembrane serine proteases found in all kingdoms of life, sharing a conserved core structure of at least six transmembrane (TM) domains that contain the catalytic serine-histidine dyad. The rhomboid proteases, which cleave membrane embedded substrates within their TM domains, are emerging as an important...

Author Summary The opportunistic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii infects a large range of nucleated cells where it replicates intracellularly within a parasitophorous vacuole (PV) surrounded by a membrane (PVM). Parasites constitutively secrete dense-granule proteins (GRAs) both into and beyond the PV which participate in remodelling of the PVM, recruit...

To fill the knowledge gap on the biology of the fish coccidian Goussia janae, RNA extracted from exogenously sporulated oocysts was sequenced. Analysis by Trinity and Trinotate pipelines showed that 84.6% of assembled transcripts share the highest similarity with Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum. Phylogenetic and interpretive analyses from RN...