Recycling factors for ribosome disassembly in the apicoplast and mitochondrion of Plasmodium falciparum

A Gupta; SS Mir; KE Jackson; EE Lim; P Shah; A Sinha; MI Siddiqi; SA Ralph; S Habib

Journal article

Recycling factors for ribosome disassembly in the apicoplast and mitochondrion of Plasmodium falciparum

A Gupta, SS Mir, KE Jackson, EE Lim, P Shah, A Sinha, MI Siddiqi, SA Ralph, S Habib

Molecular Microbiology | Published : 2013

DOI: 10.1111/mmi.12230

Abstract

The reduced genomes of the apicoplast and mitochondrion of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum are actively translated and antibiotic-mediated translation inhibition is detrimental to parasite survival. In order to understand recycling of organellar ribosomes, a critical step in protein translation, we identified ribosome recycling factors (RRF) encoded by the parasite nuclear genome. Targeting of PfRRF1 and PfRRF2 to the apicoplast and mitochondrion respectively was established by localization of leader sequence-GFP fusions. Unlike any RRF characterized thus far, PfRRF2 formed dimers with disulphide interaction(s) and additionally localized in the cytoplasm, thus suggesting adjunct f..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Stuart Ralph Author

Related Projects (2)

Understanding protein translation in the malaria parasite

Malaria is a major worldwide infectious disease. The disease kills around 2 million people every year, and current drugs are increasingly fa..

tRNA synthetases as drug targets in Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria is a major worldwide infectious disease. The disease kills around 2 million people every year, and current drugs are increasingly fa..

Grants

Awarded by European Commission

Funding Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Umesh Varshney for E. coli MRE600 and LJ14 (frr)<SUP>ts</SUP> strains, Prof. Alan Cowman for the pGlux.1 vector, Prof. G. I. McFadden for anti-ACP antibody and Prof. W.G.J. Hol for the RIG plasmid. Dr Kavita Singh is acknowledged for help with confocal microscopy. A. G. and P. S. received scholarships from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. This work was supported by the European Community's Seven Framework Programme (MEPHTIS Project, FP 7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement number (HEALTH-F3-2009-223024) and an Indo-Spain Joint Cooperation grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST/INT/Spain/P-33/11) to S. H. S. A. R. was funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT0990350) and a National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia project grant (628704). This is CDRI communication number 8440.