A spatially localized rhomboid protease cleaves cell surface adhesins essential for invasion by Toxoplasma.

ABSTRACT: Apicomplexan parasites cause serious human and animal diseases, the treatment of which requires identification of new therapeutic targets. Host-cell invasion culminates in the essential cleavage of parasite adhesins, and although the cleavage site for several adhesins maps within their transmembrane domains, the protease responsible for this processing has not been discovered. We have identified, cloned, and characterized the five nonmitochondrial rhomboid intramembrane proteases encoded in the recently completed genome of Toxoplasma gondii. Four T. gondii rhomboids (TgROMs) were active proteases with similar substrate specificity. TgROM1, TgROM4, and TgROM5 were expressed in the tachyzoite stage responsible for the disease, whereas TgROM2 and TgROM3 were expressed in the oocyst stage invo

SUBMITTER: Brossier F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC554800 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature