Abstract

Malaria parasites have coevolved with humans over thousands of years, mirroring their migration out of Africa. They persist to this day, despite continuous elimination efforts worldwide. Life-history theory predicts that parasites can adjust investment into (within-host) replication versus (between-host) transmission, dependent on the environmental conditions. Studies in P. falciparum revealed that epigenetic mechanisms regulate the plasticity in sexual conversion rates (i.e. the proportion in a given asexual cohort that produce sexual, transmissive progeny) in response to changes in the within-host environment. Given the spread and persistence of malaria parasites across a wide range of transmission settings, it is likely that the sexual conversion rate is also be subject to natural selection. I will present data demonstrating that both environmental and genetic factors contribute to the regulation of malaria transmission.

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