ArticlePLoS biology2021
Molecular characterization of the conoid complex in Toxoplasma reveals its conservation in all apicomplexans, including Plasmodium species.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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50 citing papers in PubMed, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dual apical methyltransferases orchestrate motility initiation in apicomplexan parasites.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- The human parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, is paralyzed without two components of the apical polar ring.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- The genome sequence of the gastric gland parasite,iScience · 2026Article
- The cytoskeleton of pathogenic protists.Bioscience reports · 2026Review
- Apicortin defines theLife science alliance · 2026Article
- Microtubule inner proteins in apicomplexan parasites.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Imaging malaria parasites across scales and time.Journal of microscopy · 2026Review
- The essential function of the apical polar ring during the blood stage ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- An integrative assessment of Dactylosoma cf. ranarum (Apicomplexa: Dactylosomatidae) from Pelophylax water frogs.Parasite (Paris, France) · 2026Article
- High-resolution cryo-EM meets parasitology in structural models of the conoid from Toxoplasma.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- Atomic models of the Toxoplasma cell invasion machinery.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- A guide to the apicomplexan cell cycle: endodyogeny and schizogony.Trends in parasitology · 2025Review
- An apical ring protein essential for conoid complex assembly and daughter cell formation in Toxoplasma gondii.Nature communications · 2025Article
- RNG2 tethers the conoid to the apical polar ring in Toxoplasma gondii to enable parasite motility and invasion.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- A divergent cyclic nucleotide binding protein promotes Plasmodium ookinete infection of the mosquito.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Adaptations and metabolic evolution of myzozoan protists across diverse lifestyles and environments.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Architecture of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- The initiation and early development of apical-basal polarity in Toxoplasma gondii.Journal of cell science · 2024Article
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12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The apical complex is the instrument of invasion used by apicomplexan parasites, and the conoid is a conspicuous feature of this apparatus found throughout this phylum. The conoid, however, is believed to be heavily reduced or missing from Plasmodium species and other members of the class Aconoidasida. Relatively few conoid proteins have previously been identified, making it difficult to address how conserved this feature is throughout the phylum, and whether it is genuinely missing from some major groups. Moreover, parasites such as Plasmodium species cycle through 3 invasive forms, and there is the possibility of differential presence of the conoid between these stages. We have applied spatial proteomics and high-resolution microscopy to develop a more complete molecular inventory and understanding of the organisation of conoid-associated proteins in the model apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii. These data revealed molecular conservation of all conoid substructures throughout Apicomplexa, including Plasmodium, and even in allied Myzozoa such as Chromera and dinoflagellates. We reporter-tagged and observed the expression and location of several conoid complex proteins in the malaria model P. berghei and revealed equivalent structures in all of its zoite forms, as well as evidence of molecular differentiation between blood-stage merozoites and the ookinetes and sporozoites of the mosquito vector. Collectively, we show that the conoid is a conserved apicomplexan element at the heart of the invasion mechanisms of these highly successful and often devastating parasites.
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