Publications related to Apicomplexan life cycle

Functional and Computational Genomics Reveal Unprecedented Flexibility in Stage-Specific Toxoplasma Metabolism

Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Anush Chiappino-Pepe, Matteo Lunghi, Damien Lionel Nicolas, Aarti Krishnan, Dominique Soldati-Favre

To survive and proliferate in diverse host environments with varying nutrient availability, the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii reprograms its metabolism. We have generated and curated a genome-scale metabolic model (iTgo) for the fast-re ...

CELL PRESS2020

Centriole assembly at a glance

Pierre Gönczy, Georgios Hatzopoulos

The centriole organelle consists of microtubules (MTs) that exhibit a striking 9-fold radial symmetry. Centrioles play fundamental roles across eukaryotes, notably in cell signaling, motility and division. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and accom ...

2019

Genome-Scale Identification of Essential Metabolic Processes for Targeting the Plasmodium Liver Stage

Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Vikash Kumar Pandey, Anush Chiappino-Pepe, Dominique Soldati-Favre

Plasmodium gene functions in mosquito and liver stages remain poorly characterized due to limitations in the throughput of phenotyping at these stages. To fill this gap, we followed more than 1,300 barcoded P. berghei mutants through the life cycle. We dis ...

2019

Safely Managed Hygiene: A Risk-Based Assessment of Handwashing Water Quality

Matthew Eric Verbyla, Timothy R. Julian

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 6.2.1 requires household handwashing facilities to have soap and water, but there are no guidelines for handwashing water quality. In contrast, drinking water quality guidelines are defined: water must be "free ...

2019

Reconstruction and systems analysis of metabolism in apicomplexan parasites Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum

Stepan Tymoshenko

Understanding of metabolism in disease-causing microorganisms promotes drug design through the identification of the enzymes whose activity is indispensable for important cellular functions of the pathogens. Nowadays such understanding arises from experime ...

EPFL2015

Malaria Parasite-Infected Erythrocytes Secrete PfCK1, the Plasmodium Homologue of the Pleiotropic Protein Kinase Casein Kinase 1

Romain Hamelin, Florence Armand, Marc Moniatte

Casein kinase 1 (CK1) is a pleiotropic protein kinase implicated in several fundamental processes of eukaryotic cell biology. Plasmodium falciparum encodes a single CK1 isoform, PfCK1, that is expressed at all stages of the parasite's life cycle. We have p ...

Public Library of Science2015

Metabolic Needs and Capabilities of Toxoplasma gondii through Combined Computational and Experimental Analysis

Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Stepan Tymoshenko, Rebecca Oppenheim, Jens Nielsen, Dominique Soldati-Favre

Toxoplasma gondii is a human pathogen prevalent worldwide that poses a challenging and unmet need for novel treatment of toxoplasmosis. Using a semi-automated reconstruction algorithm, we reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic model, ToxoNet1. The reconstr ...

Public Library Science2015

Regulation of Plasmodium falciparum Development by Calcium-dependent Protein Kinase 7 (PfCDPK7)

Second messengers such as phosphoinositides and calcium are known to control diverse processes involved in the development of malaria parasites. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and pathways need to be unraveled, which may be achieved by unders ...

Amer Soc Biochemistry Molecular Biology Inc2014

Inhibition of the SR Protein-Phosphorylating CLK Kinases of Plasmodium falciparum Impairs Blood Stage Replication and Malaria Transmission

Cyclin-dependent kinase-like kinases (CLKs) are dual specificity protein kinases that phosphorylate Serine/Arginine-rich (SR) proteins involved in pre-mRNA processing. Four CLKs, termed PfCLK-1-4, can be identified in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium ...

Public Library Science2014

Expression in Yeast Links Field Polymorphisms in PfATP6 to in Vitro Artemisinin Resistance and Identifies New Inhibitor Classes

Serena Pulcini

Background. The mechanism of action of artemisinins against malaria is unclear, despite their widespread use in combination therapies and the emergence of resistance. Results. Here, we report expression of PfATP6 (a SERCA pump) in yeast and demonstrate its ...

Oxford University Press2013

Involvement of Plasmodium falciparum protein kinase CK2 in the chromatin assembly pathway

Guillem Dayer, Romain Hamelin, Marc Moniatte, Amit Sharma

Background: Protein kinase CK2 is a pleiotropic serine/threonine protein kinase with hundreds of reported substrates, and plays an important role in a number of cellular processes. The cellular functions of Plasmodium falciparum CK2 (PfCK2) are unknown. Th ...

2012

The Plasmodium falciparum, Nima-related kinase Pfnek-4: a marker for asexual parasites committed to sexual differentiation

Miguel Garcia

Background: Malaria parasites undergo, in the vertebrate host, a developmental switch from asexual replication to sexual differentiation leading to the formation of gametocytes, the only form able to survive in the mosquito vector. Regulation of the onset ...

Biomed Central Ltd2012

Plasmodium falciparum NIMA-related kinase Pfnek-1: sex specificity and assessment of essentiality for the erythrocytic asexual cycle

The Plasmodium falciparum kinome includes a family of four protein kinases (Pfnek-1 to -4) related to the NIMA (never-in-mitosis) family, members of which play important roles in mitosis and meiosis in eukaryotic cells. Only one of these, Pfnek-1, which we ...

2011

Two Nucleus-Localized CDK-Like Kinases With Crucial Roles for Malaria Parasite Erythrocytic Replication Are Involved in Phosphorylation of Splicing Factor

The kinome of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum comprises representatives of most eukaryotic protein kinase groups, including kinases which regulate proliferation and differentiation processes. Despite extensive research on most plasmodial e ...

Wiley-Blackwell2011

Malaria parasites form filamentous cell-to-cell connections during reproduction in the mosquito midgut

Physical contact is important for the interaction between animal cells, but it can represent a major challenge for protists like malaria parasites. Recently, novel filamentous cell-cell contacts have been identified in different types of eukaryotic cells a ...

2011

An essential Aurora-related kinase transiently associates with spindle pole bodies during Plasmodium falciparum erythrocytic schizogony

Aurora kinases compose a family of conserved Ser/Thr protein kinases playing essential roles in eukaryotic cell division. To date, Aurora homologues remain uncharacterized in the protozoan phylum Apicomplexa. In malaria parasites, the characterization of A ...

Wiley-Blackwell2011

Global kinomic and phospho-proteomic analyses of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Yvan Bouza Lamigueiro, Claudia Demarta, Michele Graciotti

The role of protein phosphorylation in the life cycle of malaria parasites is slowly emerging. Here we combine global phospho-proteomic analysis with kinome-wide reverse genetics to assess the importance of protein phosphorylation in Plasmodium falciparum ...

Nature Research2011

Activation of a PAK-MEK signalling pathway in malaria parasite-infected erythrocytes

Romain Hamelin, Marc Moniatte

P>Merozoites of malaria parasites invade red blood cells (RBCs), where they multiply by schizogony, undergoing development through ring, trophozoite and schizont stages that are responsible for malaria pathogenesis. Here, we report that a protein kinase-me ...

Wiley-Blackwell2011

The Plasmodium eukaryotic initiation factor-2alpha kinase IK2 controls the latency of sporozoites in the mosquito salivary glands

Sporozoites, the invasive form of malaria parasites transmitted by mosquitoes, are quiescent while in the insect salivary glands. Sporozoites only differentiate inside of the hepatocytes of the mammalian host. We show that sporozoite latency is an active p ...

Rockefeller University Press2010

SAM domain-dependent activity of PfTKL3, an essential tyrosine kinase-like kinase of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Over the last decade, several protein kinases inhibitors have reached the market for cancer chemotherapy. The kinomes of pathogens represent potentially attractive targets in infectious diseases. The functions of the majority of protein kinases of Plasmodi ...

Birkhäuser-Verlag, Springer2010