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Narwal SK, Nayak B, Mehra P, Mishra S. Protein kinase 9 is not required for completion of the Plasmodium berghei life cycle. Microbiol Res 2022; 260:127051. [DOI: 10.1016/j.micres.2022.127051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2021] [Revised: 04/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Singh D, Patri S, Narahari V, Segireddy RR, Dey S, Saurabh A, Macha V, Prabhu NP, Srivastava A, Kolli SK, Kota AK. A Conserved Plasmodium Structural Integrity Maintenance Protein (SIMP) is associated with sporozoite membrane and is essential for maintaining shape and infectivity. Mol Microbiol 2022; 117:1324-1339. [PMID: 35301756 DOI: 10.1111/mmi.14894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Revised: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Plasmodium sporozoites are extracellular forms introduced during mosquito bite that selectively invade mammalian hepatocytes. Sporozoites are delimited by a cell membrane that is linked to the underlying acto-myosin molecular motor. While membrane proteins with roles in motility and invasion have been well studied, very little is known about proteins that maintain the sporozoite shape. We demonstrate that in Plasmodium berghei (Pb) a conserved hypothetical gene, PBANKA_1422900 specifies sporozoite structural integrity maintenance protein (SIMP) required for maintaining the sporozoite shape and motility. Sporozoites lacking SIMP exhibited loss of regular shape, extensive membrane blebbing at multiple foci and membrane detachment. The mutant sporozoites failed to infect hepatocytes, though the altered shape did not affect the organisation of cytoskeleton or inner membrane complex (IMC). Interestingly, the components of IMC failed to extend under the membrane blebs likely suggesting that SIMP may assist in anchoring the membrane to IMC. Endogenous C-terminal HA tagging localized SIMP to membrane and revealed the C-terminus of the protein to be extracellular. Since SIMP is highly conserved amongst Plasmodium species, these findings have important implications for utilising it as a novel sporozoite specific vaccine candidate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dipti Singh
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Smita Patri
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Veeda Narahari
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Rameswara R Segireddy
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Sandeep Dey
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Archi Saurabh
- Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Vijay Macha
- National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, 500032, India
| | - N Prakash Prabhu
- Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Anand Srivastava
- National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, 500032, India
| | - Surendra Kumar Kolli
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
| | - Arun Kumar Kota
- Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India
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