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Plasmodium Merozoite TRAP Family Protein Is Essential for Vacuole Membrane Disruption and Gamete Egress from Erythrocytes
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Plasmodium Merozoite TRAP Family Protein Is Essential for Vacuole Membrane Disruption and Gamete Egress from Erythrocytes

Daniel Y. Bargieri, Sabine Thiberge, Chwen L. Tay, Alison F. Carey, Alice Rantz, Florian Hischen, Audrey Lorthiois, Ursula Straschil, Pallavi Singh, Shailja Singh, …
Cell host & microbe, v 20(5), pp 618-630
09 Nov 2016
PMID: 27832590
url
http://www.cell.com/article/S1931312816304413/pdfView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2016.10.015View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Surface-associated TRAP (thrombospondin-related anonymous protein) family proteins are conserved across the phylum of apicomplexan parasites. TRAP proteins are thought to play an integral role in parasite motility and cell invasion by linking the extracellular environment with the parasite submembrane actomyosin motor. Blood stage forms of the malaria parasite Plasmodium express a TRAP family protein called merozoite-TRAP (MTRAP) that has been implicated in erythrocyte invasion. Using MTRAP-deficient mutants of the rodent-infecting P. berghei and human-infecting P. falciparum parasites, we show that MTRAP is dispensable for erythrocyte invasion. Instead, MTRAP is essential for gamete egress from erythrocytes, where it is necessary for the disruption of the gamete-containing parasitophorous vacuole membrane, and thus for parasite transmission to mosquitoes. This indicates that motor-binding TRAP family members function not just in parasite motility and cell invasion but also in membrane disruption and cell egress. [Display omitted] •Merozoite TRAP protein, MTRAP, is dispensable for Plasmodium asexual blood stages•MTRAP-deficient parasites are blocked from transmission to mosquitoes•MTRAP is expressed in Plasmodium sexual stages and is essential for gamete egress•MTRAP-deficient gametes fail to lyse the parasitophorous vacuole membrane for egress MTRAP, a protein expressed in Plasmodium blood stages, was thought to function during invasion of erythrocytes by the asexual merozoite stage. Bargieri et al. report that MTRAP is dispensable for merozoite invasion but is essential for egress of the gamete sexual stage from erythrocytes and for parasite transmission to mosquitoes.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Microbiology
Parasitology
Virology
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