Plasmodium berghei glycine cleavage system T-protein is non-essential for parasite survival in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts

Varadarajan, Nandan Mysore and Sundaram, Balamurugan and Subramani, Pradeep Annamalai and Kalappa, Devaiah Monnanda and Ghosh, Susanta Kumar and Nagaraj, Viswanathan Arun (2014) Plasmodium berghei glycine cleavage system T-protein is non-essential for parasite survival in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. In: MOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL PARASITOLOGY, 197 (1-2). pp. 50-55.

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Abstract

T-protein, an aminomethyltransferase, represents one of the four components of glycine cleavage system (GCS) and catalyzes the transfer of methylene group from H-protein intermediate to tetrahydrofolate (THF) forming N-5, N-10-methylene THF (CH2-THF) with the release of ammonia. The malaria parasite genome encodes T-, H- and L-proteins, but not P-protein which is a glycine decarboxylase generating the aminomethylene group. A putative GCS has been considered to be functional in the parasite mitochondrion despite the absence of a detectable P-protein homologue. In the present study, the mitochondrial localization of T-protein in the malaria parasite was confirmed by immunofluorescence and its essentiality in the entire parasite life cycle was studied by targeting the T-protein locus in Plasmodium berghei (Pb). PbT knock out parasites did not show any growth defect in asexual, sexual and liver stages indicating that the T-protein is dispensable for parasite survival in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. The absence of P-protein homologue and the non-essentiality of T protein suggest the possible redundancy of GCS activity in the malaria parasite. Nevertheless, the H- and L-proteins of GCS could be essential for malaria parasite because of their involvement in alpha-lcetoacid dehydrogenase reactions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	MOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL PARASITOLOGY
Publisher:	ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Keywords:	Glycine cleavage system; T-protein; Plasmodium falciparum; Plasmodium berghei.; Mitochondrion; Knock out
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Biochemistry Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Infectious Disease Research
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2015 15:01
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2015 15:01
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/50788

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