A genome-wide study of malaria parasites has revealed a novel gene that confers drug resistance.

Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her team analysed 50 Plasmodium falciparum parasites from three continents and found 11 genes associated with resistance to antimalarial drugs. When they transferred one of these genes — which had not previously been associated with resistance — into parasites susceptible to drugs, the parasites became more resistant.

The protein encoded by the gene is located in the parasite's surface membrane, although its function is unknown. However, it does not seem to be a transporter protein such as those already known to pump drugs out of cells.

PLoS Genet. 7, e1001383 (2011)