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  • Temporal evaluation of commitment to sexual development in Plasmodium falciparum

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    Author(s)
    Peatey, Christopher
    Dixon, Matthew
    Gardiner, Donald
    Trenholme, Katharine
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Gardiner, Donald
    Year published
    2013
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    Abstract
    Background: The production of gametocytes is essential for transmission of malaria parasites from the mammalian host to the mosquito vector. However the process by which the asexual blood-stage parasite undergoes commitment to sexual development is not well understood. This process is known to be sensitive to environmental stimuli and it has been suggested that a G protein dependent system may mediate the switch, but there is little evidence that the Plasmodium falciparum genome encodes heterotrimeric G proteins. Previous studies have indicated that the malaria parasite can interact with endogenous erythrocyte G proteins, ...
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    Background: The production of gametocytes is essential for transmission of malaria parasites from the mammalian host to the mosquito vector. However the process by which the asexual blood-stage parasite undergoes commitment to sexual development is not well understood. This process is known to be sensitive to environmental stimuli and it has been suggested that a G protein dependent system may mediate the switch, but there is little evidence that the Plasmodium falciparum genome encodes heterotrimeric G proteins. Previous studies have indicated that the malaria parasite can interact with endogenous erythrocyte G proteins, and other components of the cyclic nucleotide pathway have been identified in P. falciparum. Also, the polypeptide cholera toxin, which induces commitment to gametocytogenesis is known to catalyze the ADP-ribosylation of the αs class of heterotrimeric G protein α subunits in mammalian systems has been reported to detect a number of Gα subunits in P. falciparum- infected red cells. Methods: Cholera toxin and Mas 7 (a structural analogue of Mastoparan) were used to assess the role played by putative G protein signalling in the commitment process, both are reported to interact with different components of classical Gαs and Gαi/o signalling pathways. Their ability to induce gametocyte production in the transgenic P. falciparum line Pfs16-GFP was determined and downstream effects on the secondary messenger cAMP measured. Results: Treatment of parasite cultures with either cholera toxin or MAS 7 resulted in increased gametocyte production, but only treatment with MAS 7 resulted in a significant increase in cAMP levels. This indicates that MAS 7 acts either directly or indirectly on the P. falciparum adenylyl cyclase. Conclusion: The observation that cholera toxin treatment did not affect cAMP levels indicates that while addition of cholera toxin does increase gametocytogenesis the method by which it induces increased commitment is not immediately obvious, except that is unlikely to be via heterotrimeric G proteins.
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    Journal Title
    Malaria Journal
    Volume
    12
    Issue
    1
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-12-134
    Copyright Statement
    © Peatey et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
    Note
    Page numbers are not for citation purposes. Instead, this article has the unique article number of 134.
    Subject
    Medical Microbiology not elsewhere classified
    Microbiology
    Medical Microbiology
    Public Health and Health Services
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/60364
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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