Sanderson, T. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2017

PlasmoTron: an open-source platform for automated culture of malaria parasites

We have created a system which allows an inexpensive open-source liquid-handling robot to automate major aspects of malaria parasite culture. Parasites are cultured in multi-well microplates, with their details recorded in a database. Information in the database is used to generate commands for the robot which result in the feeding, monitoring and passaging of parasite cultures. We show that the system is capable of raising cultures after transfection, and then maintaining them at desired parasitaemias. The PlasmoTron software is available at plasmotron.org.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2017

Phenoplasm: a database of disruption phenotypes for malaria parasite genes

Two decades from the first Plasmodium transfection, attempts have been made to disrupt more than 900 genes in malaria parasites, across five Plasmodium species. While results from the rodent malarias have been curated and systematised, phenotypic data for species of human malaria parasites has existed only scattered across a large literature. To facilitate systematic views of known experimental-genetic data across Plasmodium species, we have built PhenoPlasm (http://www.phenoplasm.org), a database of phenotypes for Plasmodium parasites. The site provides a simple interface to link citation-backed Plasmodium reverse-genetic phenotypes to gene IDs. The database has been populated with phenotypic data on 330 P. falciparum genes, curated from 155 individual publications, as well as existing curated data from RMgmDB. These data are presented using 1: 1 ortholog mapping to allow a researcher interested in a gene in one species to see results across Plasmodium. The collaborative nature of the database enables any researcher to add new phenotypes as they are discovered.

genetics↗