Fig. 1: P. chabaudi gene expression is sensitive to the phase of host circadian rhythms. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: P. chabaudi gene expression is sensitive to the phase of host circadian rhythms.

From: Malaria parasites regulate intra-erythrocytic development duration via serpentine receptor 10 to coordinate with host rhythms

Fig. 1: P. chabaudi gene expression is sensitive to the phase of host circadian rhythms.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a Ring stage parasites from donor mice were used to infect recipient mice housed in two rooms that differed by 12 h in their light:dark cycle. Blood samples were collected for RNAseq analysis from day 4 post-infection every 3 h for 11 time points (N = 4 mice per group per time point). ZT is Zeitgeber time:hours after lights on. b Time series gene expression heatmap illustrates daily rhythmicity in matched parasites (left) that lost strong rhythmicity in mismatched parasites (right). Transcripts ordered in the same sequence based on their phase of expression. Each row represents a single gene, sorted according to the phase of maximum expression starting from first sample time point. The phase of expression of each gene was obtained from ARSER and N represents number of genes with 24 h rhythmicity in expression. Each time point is represented by expression heatmap of two biological replicates. Colors represent the row Z-score. c Venn diagram of the number of daily rhythmic genes in matched (top) and mismatched (bottom) parasites. d Transcripts with daily rhythmicity in both matched and mismatched parasites had lower median amplitude (0.86, brown dashed line) in mismatched parasites compared to matched parasites (1.22, blue dashed line). This was also the case for transcripts that had ~6 h delayed phase of expression in mismatched compared to matched parasites. e Histogram of the phase distributions of 1765 genes that displayed daily rhythmicity only in matched parasites. Solid black line indicates the mean circular phase, brown line represents the standard deviation of the mean of phases. Whilst these genes are not identified as having daily rhythms in mismatched parasites, their distribution is shown for comparison. f Transcripts that displayed daily rhythmicity only in matched parasites have median period close to 24 h (blue dashed line) and (for comparison) 23 h in mismatched parasites (brown dotted line). Source data are provided as Source Data file.

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