A combination of chloroplast transformation with nuclear transformation and large-scale metabolic screening of supertransformed plant lines has enabled an entire biochemical pathway to be transferred from a medicinal plant to a high-biomass crop.
The de novo selection of a mutation responsible for Plasmodium falciparum in vitro artemisinin resistance is confirmed in Guyana, making artemisinin combination therapies vulnerable to complete resistance in this region.
MalariaGEN Plasmodium falciparum Community Project
Plasmodium falciparum kelch13 mutations that cause artemisinin resistant malaria in Southeast Asia show markedly different patterns of evolutionary selection in Africa.
Barbara H Stokes, Satish K Dhingra ... David A Fidock
Plasmodium falciparum K13 mutations confer resistance to the antimalarial artemisinin in Asian and African parasites, with most gene-edited mutant K13 African parasite lines showing a fitness cost that may predict slow dissemination of artemisinin resistance in high-transmission settings.
Harvie P Portugaliza, Shinya Miyazaki ... Alfred Cortés
Treatment of malaria parasites with the frontline antimalarial drug artemisinin can increase the proportion of parasites that convert into transmission forms.
Models of malaria and treatment dynamics were combined with emulator-based global sensitivity analysis to elucidate the interplay between drug, biology, and epidemiological factors on the evolution of resistance to malaria treatments, including artemisinin.
Paul A Sigala, Jan R Crowley ... Daniel E Goldberg
Insights into the basic metabolic architecture and adaptations of malaria parasites for growth within human erythrocytes exemplify how incisive knowledge of biochemical pathways and mechanisms may be leveraged to develop new therapies.
A look back at eLife's achievements in 2016, notably in advocating for more open practises in sciences, building an open infrastructure for research communication and supporting early-career researchers.