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Waving In
24 July 2017

Waving In

To complete their life cycle, Plasmodium parasites, causing malaria, must travel between multiple environments. Having entered a red blood cell, they transfer through the gut of a mosquito to its salivary glands, then through the skin of a new host to its bloodstream once the mosquito bites. In these latter stages, parasites are in their fastest-moving form, known as sporozoites. Studied in a dish, sporozoites attach to a flat surface with one end of the cell while the other remains active, causing them to make waving motions, visible here as curved lines. They move by rapidly building and dismantling filaments of actin, a key cytoskeletal protein also found in our cells. Recent research suggests that parasite-specific differences in the proteins assembling these filaments, especially profilin, enable them to be so dynamic. Understanding how they move so quickly may prove helpful in fighting malaria, as motility is crucial to successful infections.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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