LFR1 ferric iron reductase of Leishmania amazonensis is essential for the generation of infective parasite forms.

ABSTRACT: The protozoan parasite Leishmania is the causative agent of serious human infections worldwide. The parasites alternate between insect and vertebrate hosts and cause disease by invading macrophages, where they replicate. Parasites lacking the ferrous iron transporter LIT1 cannot grow intracellularly, indicating that a plasma membrane-associated mechanism for iron uptake is essential for the establishment of infections. Here, we identify and functionally characterize a second member of the Leishmania iron acquisition pathway, the ferric iron reductase LFR1. The LFR1 gene is up-regulated under iron deprivation and accounts for all the detectable ferric reductase activity exposed on the surface of Leishmania amazonensis. LFR1 null mutants grow normally as promastigote insect stages but are de

SUBMITTER: Flannery AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3123093 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature