Genetically Modified Malaria Parasites

Six- to eight-week-old male BALB/cByJ mice were purchased from Charles River Laboratories Inc. (France). The PbCSGFP-Luc (Azevedo et al., 2017 (link)) and PbFluo-frmg (Ponzi et al., 2009 (link)) P. berghei parasite lines were employed in the experimental work, all of which was carried out under BSL1 or ABSL2 conditions. The former parasite line expresses the fusion gene gfp-luc under the control of the csp gene promotor (RMgm-152), and the latter expresses red fluorescent protein and green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of stage-specific promotors for female and male gametocytes, respectively (RMgm-164). The genes were integrated by double recombination into the silent 230p gene locus of the P. berghei genome.