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Pernas MiP2010

From Bioblast
Pernas L, Boothroyd J (2010) Association of host mitochondria with the parasitophorous vacuole during Toxoplasma infection is not dependent on rhoptry proteins ROP2/8.

Link: Abstracts Session 6

Pernas L, Boothroyd J (2010)

Event: MiP2010

Invasion with the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii results in the formation of a parasitophorous vacuole (PV), which constitutes a safe niche for parasite survival. The PV membrane (PVM) fails to fuse with endocytic organelles yet exhibits a remarkable and specific association with host mitochondria. Previous work has modelled rhoptry protein 2 (ROP2) as the physical link that tethers host mitochondria to the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM). A recent analysis of the ROP2 family protein structures however, suggests that the ROP2 transmembrane domain postulated to mediate mitochondrial recruitment to the PVM is actually buried in the core of the protein’s conserved serine/threonine kinase fold. To determine if ROP2 is necessary for PVM-mitochondrial association, we created a parasite line deficient in ROP2 and ROP8 expression and analyzed the PVM-mitochondrial association of this knockout mutant. We show that mutants deficient in ROP2 and ROP8 expression retain the ability to recruit host mitochondria in a manner that is indistinguishable from the parental strain re-opening two important questions: what mediates mitochondrial recruitment to the Toxoplasma PVM and what effect, if any, is this having on host cells?

Fig. 1. Vacuoles containing Toxoplasma RHDrop2/8 tachyzoites show no defect in mitochondrial association by light microscopy. Human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) were labelled for 30 min at 37 oC with 50 nM MitoTracker and infected with (A) RH wild type; (B) Neospora caninum (NC-1); (C) RHΔrop2/8, or co-infected with (D) RHgfpluc and RHΔrop2/8. Four hours p.i. monolayers were fixed in 3.7% formaldehyde for 15 min at 37 oC. Scale bar, 5 µm. Colour figure: p. 122.


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