Metabolic fate of fumarate, a side product of the purine salvage pathway in the intraerythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum.

ABSTRACT: In aerobic respiration, the tricarboxylic acid cycle is pivotal to the complete oxidation of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids to carbon dioxide and water. Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of human malaria, lacks a conventional tricarboxylic acid cycle and depends exclusively on glycolysis for ATP production. However, all of the constituent enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle are annotated in the genome of P. falciparum, which implies that the pathway might have important, yet unidentified biosynthetic functions. Here we show that fumarate, a side product of the purine salvage pathway and a metabolic intermediate of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, is not a metabolic waste but is converted to aspartate through malate and oxaloacetate. P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes and fr

SUBMITTER: Bulusu V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3059058 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature