Journal article
Mitochondrial evolution and functions in malaria parasites
Annual review of microbiology, v 63(1), pp 249-267
2009
PMID: 19575561
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Mitochondria in malaria parasites have some unusual evolutionary and functional features. The drastic reduction in the size of their mitochondrial genome, encoding just three proteins, appears to have originated at the point of divergence of dinoflagellates and apicomplexan parasites from ciliates and may have accompanied the acquisition of plastids by the former. Unusual translational machinery as revealed by the highly fragmented mitochondrial ribosomal RNA genes also appears to have originated at this deflection point. Some of the biochemical properties of malarial mitochondria also appear to be unconventional. Although tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes are encoded by the genome, they do not appear to be involved in the full oxidation of glucose to fuel mitochondrial ATP synthesis in the blood stages of malaria parasites. A critical role of the mitochondrial electron transport chain appears to be to serve pyrimidine biosynthesis. In spite of their minimal nature, Plasmodium mitochondria are attractive targets for antimalarial drugs.
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Details
- Title
- Mitochondrial evolution and functions in malaria parasites
- Creators
- Akhil B Vaidya - Center for Molecular Parasitology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19129, USA. avaidya@drexelmed.eduMichael W Mather
- Publication Details
- Annual review of microbiology, v 63(1), pp 249-267
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews; United States
- Grant note
- R01AI28398 / NIAID NIH HHS R01AI53148 / NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI028398 / NIAID NIH HHS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000270910300013
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-70349536103
- Other Identifier
- 991014877890904721
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Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Microbiology