Cryo-tomography and 3D Electron Diffraction Reveal the Polar Habit and Chiral Structure of the Malaria Pigment Crystal Hemozoin.

ABSTRACT: Detoxification of heme in Plasmodium depends on its crystallization into hemozoin. This pathway is a major target of antimalarial drugs. The crystalline structure of hemozoin was established by X-ray powder diffraction using a synthetic analog, β-hematin. Here, we apply emerging methods of in situ cryo-electron tomography and 3D electron diffraction to obtain a definitive structure of hemozoin directly from ruptured parasite cells. Biogenic hemozoin crystals take a striking polar morphology. Like β-hematin, the unit cell contains a heme dimer, which may form four distinct stereoisomers: two centrosymmetric and two chiral enantiomers. Diffraction analysis, supported by density functional theory analysis, reveals a selective mixture in the hemozoin lattice of one centrosymmetri

SUBMITTER: Klar PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11363319 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature