Message communications of particular message types between compute nodes using DMA shadow buffers includes: receiving a buffer identifier specifying an application buffer having a message of a particular type for transmission to a target compute node through a network; selecting one of a plurality of shadow buffers for a DMA engine on the compute node for storing the message, each shadow buffer corresponding to a slot of an injection FIFO buffer maintained by the DMA engine; storing the message in the selected shadow buffer; creating a data descriptor for the message stored in the selected shadow buffer; injecting the data descriptor into the slot of the injection FIFO buffer corresponding to the selected shadow buffer; selecting the data descriptor from the injection FIFO buffer; and transmitting the message specified by the selected data descriptor through the data communications network to the target compute node.