The intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii depends on the synthesis of long-chain and very long-chain unsaturated fatty acids not supplied by the host cell

Abstract

Apicomplexa are parasitic protozoa that cause important human diseases including malaria, cryptosporidiosis and toxoplasmosis. The replication of these parasites within their target host cell is dependent on both salvage as well as de novo synthesis of fatty acids. In Toxoplasma gondii, fatty acid synthesis via the apicoplast-localized FASII is essential for pathogenesis, while the role of two other fatty acid biosynthetic complexes remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the ER-localized fatty acid elongation (ELO) complexes are essential for parasite growth. Conditional knockdown of the nonredundant hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase enzymes in the ELO pathway severely ..