Malaria Genetics & Genomics

PubMed

Entrez

BLAST

OMIM

Taxonomy

Structure

Home General Info MGP Info Data Release What's New Features Meetings Site Search Plasmodium vivax Rodent Malaria Maps & Markers Genetic Maps Optical Maps Segregation Data Markers Electronic PCR Sequence Data BLAST GenBank BLAST Custom BLAST Enter Request ID Tutorial Epidemiology Taxonomy Tools Literature Search Last Week Publication Last Week Genbank Release Research Projects Malaria Links Credits/Contacts FTP Access

Plasmodium berghei P. berghei was first isolated from the blood of a thicket rat in Katanga (now Zaire) Africa, by I. H. Vinke in 1948. The parasite is readily grown in laboratory mice and rats, where it shows a preference for reticolocytes (Blood smear of P. berghei). Infections are asynchronous with a periodicity of 22-25 hours. The parasite may be transmitted in the laboratory by Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, but is extremely sensitive to temperatures outside the range 19-21oC. Very few genetically distinct isolates of P. berghei are available (WHO Rodent Malaria List) making this species the least valuable for genetic crossing work. o The P. berghei genome P. berghei, like all other species of malaria parasite studied so far, has 14 chromosomes which can be separated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Genome size is estimated to be close to that of P. falciparum at 25-30 Mb. The genome is extremely A/T rich at approximately 80% A/T, comparable to that of P. falciparum. o University of Florida EST and GSS Project The University of Florida have initiated a gene sequence tag project of P. berghei to complement an ongoing gene sequence tag project in P. vivax (http://parasite.vetmed.ufl.edu). The aim is to tag 10,000 genes in the genome of P. berghei and to assign putative identities to each gene where possible. Last updated: Dec 1, 2000 Disclaimer | Write to the Help Desk NCBI | NLM | NIH