RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Asynchronous nuclear cycles in multinucleated <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> enable rapid proliferation
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.04.15.440016
DO 10.1101/2021.04.15.440016
A1 Severina Klaus
A1 Patrick Binder
A1 Juyeop Kim
A1 Marta Machado
A1 Charlotta Funaya
A1 Violetta Schaaf
A1 Darius Klaschka
A1 Aiste Kudulyte
A1 Marek Cyrklaff
A1 Vibor Laketa
A1 Thomas Höfer
A1 Julien Guizetti
A1 Nils B. Becker
A1 Friedrich Frischknecht
A1 Ulrich S. Schwarz
A1 Markus Ganter
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/15/2021.04.15.440016.abstract
AB Malaria-causing parasites proliferate within erythrocytes through schizogony, forming multinucleated stages before cellularization. Nuclear multiplication does not follow a strict geometric 2n progression and each proliferative cycle produces a heterogeneous number of progeny. Here, by tracking nuclei and DNA replication, we show that individual nuclei replicate their DNA at different times, despite residing in a shared cytoplasm. Extrapolating from experimental data using mathematical modeling, we demonstrate that a limiting factor must exist that slows down the nuclear multiplication rate. Indeed, our data show that temporally overlapping DNA replication events were significantly slower than partially or non-overlapping events. Our findings suggest an evolutionary pressure that selects for asynchronous DNA replication, balancing available resources with rapid pathogen proliferation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.