Date of Award

Fall 9-5-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Bioinformatics & Computational Biology

First Advisor

Stefan Kanzok

Abstract

Malaria afflicts over 200 million people annually, which results in over half a million deaths, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria parasites are complex protozoan organisms that inhabit two hosts: humans, the site of asexual reproduction, and the Anopheles mosquito, where sexual reproduction occurs. To withstand the hostile extracellular environment of the Anopheles mosquito, the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei employs antioxidant defense mechanisms. Previous work suggests upregulation of 1-Cysteine Peroxiredoxin (1-CPxn) when the mosquito uptakes a blood meal containing the parasite. The parasite must acclimate to the harsh environmental conditions of the mosquito midgut: find a way to counteract reactive oxygen species (ROS) released by the mosquito’s immune system or die. We hypothesize that the parasite senses a threat to its survival and responds by activating an antioxidant response motif (ARM), resulting in the expression of 1-CPxn. In the present work, I aim to locate ARM(s) within the 1-CPxn promoter through a “promoter bashing approach,” using a combination of computational and experimental tools. Informed by computational prediction of ARM sites, I produced luciferase reporter constructs with the goal of transforming those into malaria parasites.

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