Yeast dihydroorotate dehydrogenase as a new selectable marker for Plasmodium falciparum transfection.

ABSTRACT: Genetic manipulation of Plasmodium falciparum in culture through transfection has provided numerous insights into the molecular and cell biology of this parasite. The procedure is rather cumbersome, and is limited by the number of drug-resistant markers that can be used for selecting transfected parasites. Here we report a new selectable marker that could allow multiple transfections. We have taken advantage of our finding that a critical function of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (mtETC) in the erythrocytic stages of P. falciparum is the regeneration of ubiquinone as co-substrate of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), and that transgenic P. falciparum expressing ubiquinone-independent DHODH from yeast (yDHODH) are resistant to all mtETC inhibitors. We assessed the possibilit

SUBMITTER: Ganesan SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3057331 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature