Journal article
Plasmodium falciparum formins are essential for invasion and sexual stage development
S Collier, E Pietsch, M Dans, D Ling, TA Tavella, S Lopaticki, DS Marapana, MA Shibu, D Andrew, S Tiash, PJ McMillan, P Gilson, L Tilley, MWA Dixon
Communications Biology | Published : 2023
Abstract
The malaria parasite uses actin-based mechanisms throughout its lifecycle to control a range of biological processes including intracellular trafficking, gene regulation, parasite motility and invasion. In this work we assign functions to the Plasmodium falciparum formins 1 and 2 (FRM1 and FRM2) proteins in asexual and sexual blood stage development. We show that FRM1 is essential for merozoite invasion and FRM2 is required for efficient cell division. We also observed divergent functions for FRM1 and FRM2 in gametocyte development. Conditional deletion of FRM1 leads to a delay in gametocyte stage progression. We show that FRM2 controls the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons in developing g..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which this project was conducted, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We thank Prof Jake Baum, The University of New South Wales for PfGAP45 antibodies and for providing the pKIWI constructs. We thank Professor Alan Cowman, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for providing anti-RON4 and anti-EBA175 antibodies and Robin Anders for providing anti-AMA1 antibodies. We acknowledge the Biological Optical Microscopy Platform, The University of Melbourne, for microscopy assistance. L.T. is a Georgina Sweet, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow (FL150100106) (http://www.arc.gov.au). M.W.A.D. and L.T. thank the National Health and Medical Research Council (1098992) (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au) for funding this work. The authors thank the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.