Nuclear actin-related protein is required for chromosome segregation in Toxoplasma gondii.

ABSTRACT: Apicomplexa parasites use complex cell cycles to replicate that are not well understood mechanistically. We have established a robust forward genetic strategy to identify the essential components of parasite cell division. Here we describe a novel temperature sensitive Toxoplasma strain, mutant 13-20C2, which growth arrests due to a defect in mitosis. The primary phenotype is the mis-segregation of duplicated chromosomes with chromosome loss during nuclear division. This defect is conditional-lethal with respect to temperature, although relatively mild in regard to the preservation of the major microtubule organizing centers. Despite severe DNA loss many of the physical structures associated with daughter budding and the assembly of invasion structures formed and operated normally at the n

SUBMITTER: Suvorova ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3767130 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature