Journal article
The carbon and energy sources of the non-photosynthetic plastid in the malaria parasite
L Lim, M Linka, KA Mullin, APM Weber, GI McFadden
FEBS Letters | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2010
Abstract
The malaria parasite harbours an indispensable plastid known as the 'apicoplast'. The apicoplast's exact role remains uncertain, but it houses components involved in fatty acid, isoprenoid and haem biosyntheses. These pathways offer opportunities to develop anti-malarials. In the absence of photosynthesis, how apicoplast anabolism is fuelled is unclear. Here we investigated plant-like transporters of the apicoplast and measured their substrate preferences using a novel cell-free assay system to explore the carbon and energy sources of the apicoplast. The transporters exchange triose phosphate and phosphoenolpyruvate for inorganic phosphate, demonstrating that the apicoplast taps into host-de..
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Awarded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the assistance from Prof. Kiaran Kirk and Dr. Rowena Martin for attempted experiments using oocytes. We thank Katrin L. Weber and Lisa Leson for assistance with generating expression vectors. G. I. M. is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant, and Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship and is an International Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A. P. M. W. acknowledges support from Transregional Collaborative Research Center TR1 and DFG grant WE 2231/6-1. L. L. is supported by the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the Australian Federal Government and the Melbourne International Research Scholarship from The University of Melbourne.