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How a malaria parasite becomes a male

Organisms use various strategies for sex determination. The non-genetic mechanism in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, involving a male-specific factor, has now been revealed.
  1. Elisabet Tintó-Font

    1. Elisabet Tintó-Font is at ISGlobal, Hospital Clínic — Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain.

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  2. Alfred Cortés

    1. Alfred Cortés is at ISGlobal, Hospital Clínic — Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain, and at ICREA, Barcelona.

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The protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the vast majority of human malaria cases and deaths. It has a complex life cycle that involves only two developmental decision points, which occur in parasites living in red blood cells. The first of these is whether to continue with a cycle of asexual replication or to differentiate into sexual forms, called gametocytes, that enable human-to-mosquito transmission. The second is whether gametocytes develop as male or female forms. For all other stages of the life cycle, which is split between human and mosquito hosts, the parasite’s only option is to proceed to the next stage. Writing in Nature, Gomes et al.1 shed light on a long-standing mystery about how male sex is determined.

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Nature 612, 408-409 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04167-5

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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