ArticleCellular microbiology2017
Characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum and P. berghei glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase involved in FASII fatty acid utilization in the malaria parasite apicoplast.
Article in Cellular microbiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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18 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- A bacterial-type cardiolipin synthase in Plasmodium spp. supports mitochondrial respiration and is important for liver stage maturation.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Host sphingolipids supportmBio · 2025Article
- Pivotal roles of Plasmodium falciparum lysophospholipid acyltransferase 1 in cell cycle progression and cytostome internalization.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Identification of visible and near-infrared signature peaks for arboviruses and Plasmodium falciparum.PloS one · 2025Article
- Complex Endosymbiosis II: The Nonphotosynthetic Plastid of Apicomplexa Parasites (The Apicoplast) and Its Integrated Metabolism.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- The flexibility of Apicomplexa parasites in lipid metabolism.PLoS pathogens · 2022Review
- An essential vesicular-trafficking phospholipase mediates neutral lipid synthesis and contributes to hemozoin formation in Plasmodium falciparum.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Protein kinase TgCDPK7 regulates vesicular trafficking and phospholipid synthesis in Toxoplasma gondii.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- Alternative splicing is required for stage differentiation in malaria parasites.Genome biology · 2019Article
- Global genetic diversity of var2csa in Plasmodium falciparum with implications for malaria in pregnancy and vaccine development.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Specific Targeting of Plant and Apicomplexa Parasite Tubulin through Differential Screening Using In Silico and Assay-Based Approaches.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Article
- Article
- Validation of Putative Apicoplast-Targeting Drugs Using a Chemical Supplementation Assay in Cultured Human Malaria Parasites.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2018Article
- Lipid analysis ofCell discovery · 2018Article
- Lipid response patterns in acute phase paediatricMetabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2017Article
- Article
- Engineering of Genetically Arrested Parasites (GAPs) For a Precision Malaria Vaccine.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2017Review
- Characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum and P. berghei glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase involved in FASII fatty acid utilization in the malaria parasite apicoplast.Cellular microbiology · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Malaria parasites can synthesize fatty acids via a type II fatty acid synthesis (FASII) pathway located in their apicoplast. The FASII pathway has been pursued as an anti-malarial drug target, but surprisingly little is known about its role in lipid metabolism. Here we characterize the apicoplast glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase that acts immediately downstream of FASII in human (Plasmodium falciparum) and rodent (Plasmodium berghei) malaria parasites and investigate how this enzyme contributes to incorporating FASII fatty acids into precursors for membrane lipid synthesis. Apicoplast targeting of the P. falciparum and P. berghei enzymes are confirmed by fusion of the N-terminal targeting sequence to GFP and 3' tagging of the full length protein. Activity of the P. falciparum enzyme is demonstrated by complementation in mutant bacteria, and critical residues in the putative active site identified by site-directed mutagenesis. Genetic disruption of the P. falciparum enzyme demonstrates it is dispensable in blood stage parasites, even in conditions known to induce FASII activity. Disruption of the P. berghei enzyme demonstrates it is dispensable in blood and mosquito stage parasites, and only essential for development in the late liver stage, consistent with the requirement for FASII in rodent malaria models. However, the P. berghei mutant liver stage phenotype is found to only partially phenocopy loss of FASII, suggesting newly made fatty acids can take multiple pathways out of the apicoplast and so giving new insight into the role of FASII and apicoplast glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase in malaria parasites.
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