The knob protein KAHRP assembles into a ring-shaped structure that underpins virulence complex assembly

O Looker; AJ Blanch; B Liu; J Nunez-Iglesias; PJ McMillan; L Tilley; MWA Dixon

Journal article

The knob protein KAHRP assembles into a ring-shaped structure that underpins virulence complex assembly

O Looker, AJ Blanch, B Liu, J Nunez-Iglesias, PJ McMillan, L Tilley, MWA Dixon

Plos Pathogens | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007761

Download PDF

Abstract

Plasmodium falciparum mediates adhesion of infected red blood cells (RBCs) to blood vessel walls by assembling a multi-protein complex at the RBC surface. This virulence-mediat-ing structure, called the knob, acts as a scaffold for the presentation of the major virulence antigen, P. falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein-1 (PfEMP1). In this work we developed correlative STochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy–Scanning Electron Microscopy (STORM-SEM) to spatially and temporally map the delivery of the knob-associated histidine-rich protein (KAHRP) and PfEMP1 to the RBC membrane skeleton. We show that KAHRP is delivered as individual modules that assemble in situ, giving a ring-shaped fl..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Paul McMillan Author

Leann Tilley Author

Matthew Dixon Author

Related Projects (4)

TRAINING FELLOWSHIP - AUSTRALIAN BASED BIOMEDICAL FELLOWSHIP

TARGETING COMMITMENT TO SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION IN PLASMODIUM

Efforts to control malaria in endemic areas are very often thwarted by 'carriers', who have transmissible parasites in their bloodstream (ca..

PROBING SEXUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN MALARIA PARASITE,PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM,USING NOVEL IMAGING MODALITIES

Malaria parasites adopt a characteristic banana shape prior to sexual recombination; without this shape change disease transmission via mosq..

SPINNING DISK CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE WITH DUAL STAGES

Spinning disk confocal microscope with dual stages: This custom-built spinning disk confocal microscope with rotational stages will constitu..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

LT is a Georgina Sweet, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow (LE150100011) (http://www.arc.gov.au).MWAD and LT thank the Australian Research Council (DP110100624) (http://www.arc.gov.au) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (1098992) (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au) for funding this work. MWAD was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Training fellowship (602541). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.