Repurposing the mitotic machinery to drive cellular elongation and chromatin reorganisation in Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes.

ABSTRACT: The sexual stage gametocytes of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, adopt a falciform (crescent) shape driven by the assembly of a network of microtubules anchored to a cisternal inner membrane complex (IMC). Using 3D electron microscopy, we show that a non-mitotic microtubule organizing center (MTOC), embedded in the parasite's nuclear membrane, orients the endoplasmic reticulum and the nascent IMC and seeds cytoplasmic microtubules. A bundle of microtubules extends into the nuclear lumen, elongating the nuclear envelope and capturing the chromatin. Classical mitotic machinery components, including centriolar plaque proteins, Pfcentrin-1 and -4, microtubule-associated protein, End-binding protein-1, kinetochore protein, PfNDC80 and centromere-associated protein, PfCENH3, are invo

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9419145 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature