Malaria Genetics & Genomics African tree rats are closely related to field mice, and the laboratory rat and mouse. Their natural habitat is the gallery forests found lining streams and rivers, where they build nests of leaves at heights of 2 to 3 m above ground. Colonies of thicket rats have been introduced into the laboratory for use in parasitological studies, with limited sucess due to their poor breeding performance under laboratory conditions.
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   Plasmodium chabaudi

P. chabaudi was first isolated from the blood of a shiny thicket rat in the Central African Republic in Africa, by I. Landau and A. Chabaud in 1965. Two subspecies have been defined, P. chabaudi chabaudi and P. chabaudi adami. The parasite is readily grown in laboratory mice and rats, where it shows a preference for mature red blood cells [P chabaudi blood smear]. Infections are synchronous with a periodicity of 24 hours. The parasite may be transmitted in the laboratory by Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes.

o The P. chabaudi genome

P. chabaudi has 14 chromosomes visualized 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.

A genome map of P.c. chabaudi clone AS has been developed (chromosomes 1-7 and chromosomes 8-14) comprising of approximately 100 markers mapped over 14 chromosomes. Clone AS is usually taken as the standard reference clone for the numbering of chromosomes. The P. falciparum 3D7 clone is taken as the standard P. falciparum clone.

o Genetic mapping data from two chloroquine resistance crosses

P. chabaudi is an ideal model to study resistance to antimalarial drugs. Cloned lines of the parasite resistant to several antimalarial drugs, such as pyrimethamine and chloroquine, are available. These are stably resistant in the absence of the drugs and many can be transmitted through mosquitoes. This enables positional cloning of candidate drug resistance loci to be carried out.

Twenty independent recombinant progeny clones from two crosses between a chloroquine-resistant AS(3CQ) and chloroquine sensitive AJ clone have been analysed for the inheritance of approximately 50 genome markers (Chromosomes 1-7 , Chromosomes 7-10,12-14, and Chromosome 11). A locus on chromosome 11 has been found to be linked to the chloroquine resistance phenotype. (Reference: Carlton, J., Mackinnon, M. and Walliker, D. (1998) A chloroquine resistance locus in the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 93, 57-72. )

Last updated: May 2, 2000

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