Plasmodium berghei calcium-dependent protein kinase 3 is required for ookinete gliding motility and mosquito midgut invasion.

ABSTRACT: Apicomplexan parasites critically depend on a unique form of gliding motility to colonize their hosts and to invade cells. Gliding requires different stage and species-specific transmembrane adhesins, which interact with an intracellular motor complex shared across parasite stages and species. How gliding is regulated by extracellular factors and intracellular signalling mechanisms is largely unknown, but current evidence suggests an important role for cytosolic calcium as a second messenger. Studying a Plasmodium berghei gene deletion mutant, we here provide evidence that a calcium-dependent protein kinase, CDPK3, has an important function in regulating motility of the ookinete in the mosquito midgut. We show that a cdpk3- parasite clone produces morphologically normal ookinetes, which fa

SUBMITTER: Siden-Kiamos I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1513514 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature