Hostile takeover by Plasmodium: reorganization of parasite and host cell membranes during liver stage egress.

ABSTRACT: The protozoan parasite Plasmodium is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes and undergoes obligatory development within a parasitophorous vacuole in hepatocytes before it is released into the bloodstream. The transition to the blood stage was previously shown to involve the packaging of exoerythrocytic merozoites into membrane-surrounded vesicles, called merosomes, which are delivered directly into liver sinusoids. However, it was unclear whether the membrane of these merosomes was derived from the parasite membrane, the parasitophorous vacuole membrane or the host cell membrane. This knowledge is required to determine how phagocytes will be directed against merosomes. Here, we fluorescently label the candidate membranes and use live cell imaging to show that the merosome membrane deri

SUBMITTER: Graewe S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3164640 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature