Molecular make-up of the Plasmodium parasitophorous vacuolar membrane

TOBIAS SPIELMANN; GEORGINA N. MONTAGNA; LEONI HECHT ; KAI MATUSCHEWSKI

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY (PRINT)

ELSEVIER GMBH

Año: 2012

1438-4221

Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria, is an obligate, intracellular, eukaryotic cell that invades,replicates, and differentiates within hepatocytes and erythrocytes. Inside a host cell, a second membranedelineates the developing pathogen in addition to the parasite plasma membrane, resulting in a distinctcellular compartment, termed parasitophorous vacuole (PV). The PV membrane (PVM) constitutes theparasite?host cell interface and is likely central to nutrient acquisition, host cell remodeling, waste disposal,environmental sensing, and protection from innate defense. Over the past two decades, a numberof parasite-encoded PVM proteins have been identified. They include multigene families and proteincomplexes, such as early-transcribed membrane proteins (ETRAMPs) and the Plasmodium translocon forexported proteins (PTEX). Nearly all Plasmodium PVM proteins are restricted to this genus and displaytransient and stage-specific expression. Here, we provide an overview of the PVM proteins of Plasmodiumblood and liver stages. Biochemical and experimental genetics data suggest that some PVM proteins areideal targets for novel anti-malarial intervention strategies