Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rupp, Ingrid
• Sologub, Ludmilla
• Williamson, Kim C
• Scheuermayer, Matthias
• Reininger, Luc
• Doerig, Christian
• Eksi, Saliha
• Kombila, Davy U
• Frank, Matthias
• Pradel, Gabriele

Titel

Malaria parasites form filamentous cell-to-cell connections during reproduction in the mosquito midgut

Ist Teil von

• Cell research, 2011-04, Vol.21 (4), p.683-696

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Physical contact is important for the interaction between animal cells, but it can represent a major challenge for protists like malaria parasites. Recently, novel filamentous cell-cell contacts have been identified in different types of eukaryotic cells and termed nanotubes due to their morphological appearance. Nanotubes represent small dynamic membranous extensions that consist of F-actin and are considered an ancient feature evolved by eukaryotic cells to establish contact for communication. We here describe similar tubular structures in the malaria pathogen Plasmo- diumfalciparum, which emerge from the surfaces of the forming gametes upon gametocyte activation in the mosquito midgut. The filaments can exhibit a length of 〉 100 ~tm and contain the F-actin isoform aetin 2. They actively form within a few minutes after gametocyte activation and persist until the zygote transforms into the ookinete. The fila- ments originate from the parasite plasma membrane, are close ended and express adhesion proteins on their surfaces that are typically found in gametes, like P~230, Pj~48/45 or Pfs25, but not the zygote surface protein Pfs28. We show that these tubular structures represent long-distance cell-to-cell connections between sexual stage parasites and de- monstrate that they meet the characteristics of nanotubes. We propose that malaria parasites utilize these adhesive ＂nanotubes＂ in order to facilitate intercellular contact between gametes during reproduction in the mosquito midgut.