How was Plasmodium Falciparum AMA1 Discovered?

QUESTION:

Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 was discovered how?

ANSWER:

AMA1 stands for “apical membrane antigen 1”, and it is a protein expressed in the cell membrane of the P. falciparum parasites.

Whereas many of these antigenic proteins are highly variable between parasites, this one appears to be relatively well conserved in evolutionary terms, and therefore is a leading drug target candidate for development of new therapeutic medication against malaria.

The presence of AMA1 was elucidated during the genome sequencing of Plasmodium falciparum, which was completed in 2002; in the same year, mass spectrometry of the proteins present in P. falciparum was also done, shedding light on the exact structure and biochemistry of AMA1. Both of these studies were published in Nature magazine in 2002.