Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

BIOPHYSICS

The power of parasite collectives

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 491–492 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Plasmodium sporozoites can move in rotating vortices owing to their chiral shape and mechanical flexibility, revealing important physical aspects of collective motion.

To perpetuate itself, the tiny micrometre-sized parasitic microbe named Plasmodium has evolved a strategy of colonizing and proliferating in two distinct animal types, namely mosquitoes and vertebrates, including humans. Whereas the mosquito’s reproductive fitness and life expectancy are barely affected by these parasites, humans pay an enormous price, with malaria annually affecting more than 200 million people and causing over 400,000 deaths1.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Chiral shape and flexibility drive the vortices of Plasmodium sporozoites.

References

  1. World Malaria Report 2017 (World Health Organization, 2017).

  2. Frischknecht, F. et al. Cell Microbiol. 6, 687–694 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Patra, P. et al. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01583-2 (2022).

  4. Vanderberg, J. P. & Frevert, U. Int. J Parasitol. 34, 991–996 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Amino, R. et al. Nat. Med. 12, 220–224 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hopp, C. S. et al. eLife 13, e07789 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wells, M. B. & Andrew, D. J. mBio 10, e01238–19 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Delcourt, J., Bode, N. W. & Denoël, M. Q Rev. Biol. 91, 1–24 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kudryashev, M. et al. Cell Microbiol. 14, 1757–1768 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Xie, H. et al. Sci. Robot. 4, eaav8006 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia

    Iva M. Tolić

  2. Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Cnrs UMR 5309, Inserm U 1209, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Isabelle Tardieux

Authors
  1. Iva M. Tolić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Isabelle Tardieux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isabelle Tardieux.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tolić, I.M., Tardieux, I. The power of parasite collectives. Nat. Phys. 18, 491–492 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01554-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01554-7

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing