Formin-2 drives polymerisation of actin filaments enabling segregation of apicoplasts and cytokinesis in Plasmodium falciparum

In addition to its role in erythrocyte invasion, Plasmodium falciparum actin is implicated in endocytosis, cytokinesis and inheritance of the chloroplast-like organelle called the apicoplast. Previously, the inability to visualise filamentous actin (F-actin) dynamics had restricted the characterisat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife Vol. 8
Main Authors: Stortz, Johannes Felix, Del Rosario, Mario, Singer, Mirko, Wilkes, Jonathan M, Meissner, Markus, Das, Sujaan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 19.07.2019
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subjects:
Actin
Actin Cytoskeleton - chemistry
Actin Cytoskeleton - metabolism
Actins - genetics
Actins - metabolism
apicoplast
Apicoplasts
Apicoplasts - chemistry
Apicoplasts - metabolism
Cell Biology
Chloroplasts
Conditional mutant
CRISPR
Cytokinesis
Cytokinesis - genetics
Endocytosis
Endocytosis - genetics
Erythrocytes
Erythrocytes - chemistry
Erythrocytes - parasitology
Filaments
formin
Formins - chemistry
Formins - genetics
Gene Expression Regulation - genetics
Heredity
Humans
malaria
Malaria, Falciparum - genetics
Malaria, Falciparum - metabolism
Malaria, Falciparum - parasitology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Microscopy
Motility
Parasites
Parasitology
Plasmodium
Plasmodium falciparum
Plasmodium falciparum - chemistry
Plasmodium falciparum - metabolism
Polymerization
Protein Binding
Regulatory proteins
Research Advance
Toxoplasma
Toxoplasma - metabolism
Toxoplasma - pathogenicity
Toxoplasma gondii
toxoplasmosis
Netherlands
actin
Toxoplasma gondii
cell biology
infectious disease
toxoplasmosis
P. falciparum
formin
microbiology
malaria
apicoplast
ISSN:2050-084X, 2050-084X
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In addition to its role in erythrocyte invasion, Plasmodium falciparum actin is implicated in endocytosis, cytokinesis and inheritance of the chloroplast-like organelle called the apicoplast. Previously, the inability to visualise filamentous actin (F-actin) dynamics had restricted the characterisation of both F-actin and actin regulatory proteins, a limitation we recently overcame for Toxoplasma (Periz et al, 2017). Here, we have expressed and validated actin-binding chromobodies as F-actin-sensors in Plasmodium falciparum and characterised in-vivo actin dynamics. F-actin could be chemically modulated, and genetically disrupted upon conditionally deleting actin-1. In a comparative approach, we demonstrate that Formin-2, a predicted nucleator of F-actin, is responsible for apicoplast inheritance in both Plasmodium and Toxoplasma, and additionally mediates efficient cytokinesis in Plasmodium. Finally, time-averaged local intensity measurements of F-actin in Toxoplasma conditional mutants revealed molecular determinants of spatiotemporally regulated F-actin flow. Together, our data indicate that Formin-2 is the primary F-actin nucleator during apicomplexan intracellular growth, mediating multiple essential functions.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.49030