Journal article
A female gametocyte-specific ABC transporter plays a role in lipid metabolism in the malaria parasite
PN Tran, SHJ Brown, TW Mitchell, K Matuschewski, PJ McMillan, K Kirk, MWA Dixon, AG Maier
Nature Communications | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5773
Abstract
ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters serve a variety of physiological functions as well as play key roles in drug resistance. The genome of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, encodes multiple members of this family, one of which, gABCG2, is transcribed predominantly in the gametocyte stage. Here we use gene deletion and tagging to investigate the expression, localization and function of gABCG2. The protein is found in a single dot-like lipid-rich structure within female, but not male, gametocytes. gABCG2-knockout cell lines produce more gametocytes of both sexes. By contrast, cholesteryl esters, diacylglycerols and triacylglycerols are significantly reduced in gABCG2-knock..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Antibodies were kindly provided by Leann Tilley (anti-BET3) and Geoff McFadden (anti-ACP), Pietro Alano (anti-Pfg377) and Mike Ryan (anti-GFP). We thank Uyen Nguyen (ANU) and Meng Zhang (ANU) for expert technical assistance. We are grateful to the Australian Red Cross for providing human red blood cells and serum, and to Richard Callaghan, Melanie Rug and members of our laboratories for insightful discussions. 3D-SIM was performed at the Biological Optical Microscopy Platform at the University of Melbourne (http://www.microscopy.unimelb.edu.au). M. W. A. D. is a NHMRC Early career fellow and T. W. M. is an ARC Future Fellow. This project was supported by OzEMalaR and the Australian Society for Parasitology (P.N.T.), the Ramaciotti foundations (M. W. A. D.) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (A.G.M.).