Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria 3216, Australia.
1] Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia. [2] Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2015 Jun;13(6):373-87. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3450.
Robust tools for analysing gene function in Plasmodium parasites, which are the causative agents of malaria, are being developed at an accelerating rate. Two decades after genetic technologies for use in Plasmodium spp. were first described, a range of genetic tools are now available. These include conditional systems that can regulate gene expression at the genome, transcriptional or protein level, as well as more sophisticated tools for gene editing that use piggyBac transposases, integrases, zinc-finger nucleases or the CRISPR-Cas9 system. In this Review, we discuss the molecular genetic systems that are currently available for use in Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei, and evaluate the advantages and limitations of these tools. We examine the insights that have been gained into the function of genes that are important during the blood stages of the parasites, which may help to guide the development and improvement of drug therapies and vaccines.
在疟原虫（引发疟疾的病原体）中分析基因功能的稳健工具正在加速发展。在首次描述用于疟原虫属的遗传技术二十年后，现在已经有一系列遗传工具可用。这些工具包括可以在基因组、转录或蛋白质水平上调节基因表达的条件系统，以及用于基因编辑的更复杂的工具，这些工具使用 piggyBac 转座酶、整合酶、锌指核酸酶或 CRISPR-Cas9 系统。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了目前可用于恶性疟原虫和疟原虫伯氏疟原虫的分子遗传系统，并评估了这些工具的优缺点。我们研究了这些工具在寄生虫的血液阶段对重要基因功能的深入了解，这可能有助于指导药物治疗和疫苗的开发和改进。
