Cell division in Apicomplexan parasites is organized by a homolog of the striated rootlet fiber of algal flagella.

ABSTRACT: Apicomplexa are intracellular parasites that cause important human diseases including malaria and toxoplasmosis. During host cell infection new parasites are formed through a budding process that parcels out nuclei and organelles into multiple daughters. Budding is remarkably flexible in output and can produce two to thousands of progeny cells. How genomes and daughters are counted and coordinated is unknown. Apicomplexa evolved from single celled flagellated algae, but with the exception of the gametes, lack flagella. Here we demonstrate that a structure that in the algal ancestor served as the rootlet of the flagellar basal bodies is required for parasite cell division. Parasite striated fiber assemblins (SFA) polymerize into a dynamic fiber that emerges from the centrosomes immediately

SUBMITTER: Francia ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3519896 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature