ArticleCellular microbiology2009
Type II fatty acid synthesis is essential only for malaria parasite late liver stage development.
Article in Cellular microbiology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 210 papers.
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210 citing papers in PubMed, 409 citations in OpenAlex.
- Malaria and cancer: common features and interactions.Trends in parasitology · 2026Review
- A Novel Plasmodium berghei Protein, LSMP, Regulates Malaria Liver Stage Maturation.Molecular microbiology · 2026Article
- Demystifying Plasmodium development within the Anopheles mosquito.Current opinion in microbiology · 2026Review
- TEpiNom: A computational framework integrating population data to prioritize Plasmodium falciparum T cell epitopes.Vaccine · 2026Article
- Phytochemical Diversity, Nutritional Values, and Biological Properties ofFood science & nutrition · 2026Review
- Host kinase regulation of Plasmodium vivax dormant and replicating liver stages.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- The path from early- to late-liver stage arresting genetically attenuated parasites as a malaria vaccination strategy.NPJ vaccines · 2025Review
- Host sphingolipids supportmBio · 2025Article
- A P5-ATPase, TgFLP12, diverging from plant chloroplast lipid transporters mediates apicoplast fatty export in Toxoplasma.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A Plasmodium LARC GAP provides preerythrocytic, stage and species transcending protection in mice.NPJ vaccines · 2025Article
- Article
- Genome-wide gene expression profiles throughout human malaria parasite liver stage development in humanized mice.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Liver stage P. falciparum antigens highly targeted by CD4+ T cells in malaria-exposed Ugandan children.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Genomic and biochemical analyses of lipid biosynthesis in Cyanophora paradoxa: limited role of the chloroplast in fatty acid synthesis.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Article
- Targeting Malaria's Achilles' Heels: A Review of Plasmodium Life Cycle Vulnerabilities for Drug Discovery.Current topics in medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Potent AMA1-specific human monoclonal antibody against Plasmodium vivax Pre-erythrocytic and Blood Stages.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A conserved Plasmodium nuclear protein is critical for late liver stage development.Communications biology · 2024Article
- A Plasmodium late liver stage arresting GAP provides superior protection in mice.NPJ vaccines · 2024Article
- A pyruvate transporter in the apicoplast of apicomplexan parasites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- M-iScience · 2024Article
150 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Intracellular malaria parasites require lipids for growth and replication. They possess a prokaryotic type II fatty acid synthesis (FAS II) pathway that localizes to the apicoplast plastid organelle and is assumed to be necessary for pathogenic blood stage replication. However, the importance of FAS II throughout the complex parasite life cycle remains unknown. We show in a rodent malaria model that FAS II enzymes localize to the sporozoite and liver stage apicoplast. Targeted deletion of FabB/F, a critical enzyme in fatty acid synthesis, did not affect parasite blood stage replication, mosquito stage development and initial infection in the liver. This was confirmed by knockout of FabZ, another critical FAS II enzyme. However, FAS II-deficient Plasmodium yoelii liver stages failed to form exo-erythrocytic merozoites, the invasive stage that first initiates blood stage infection. Furthermore, deletion of FabI in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum did not show a reduction in asexual blood stage replication in vitro. Malaria parasites therefore depend on the intrinsic FAS II pathway only at one specific life cycle transition point, from liver to blood.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.