An essential contractile ring protein controls cell division in Plasmodium falciparum

Rachel M. Rudlaff, Stephan Kraemer, Vincent A. Streva and Jeffrey D. Dvorin ()
Additional contact information
Rachel M. Rudlaff: Harvard Medical School
Stephan Kraemer: Harvard University
Vincent A. Streva: Boston Children’s Hospital
Jeffrey D. Dvorin: Boston Children’s Hospital

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract During the blood stage of human malaria, Plasmodium falciparum parasites divide by schizogony—a process wherein components for several daughter cells are produced within a common cytoplasm and then segmentation, a synchronized cytokinesis, produces individual invasive daughters. The basal complex is hypothesized to be required for segmentation, acting as a contractile ring to establish daughter cell boundaries. Here we identify an essential component of the basal complex which we name PfCINCH. Using three-dimensional reconstructions of parasites at electron microscopy resolution, we show that while parasite organelles form and divide normally, PfCINCH-deficient parasites develop inviable conjoined daughters that contain components for multiple cells. Through biochemical evaluation of the PfCINCH-containing complex, we discover multiple previously undescribed basal complex proteins. Therefore, this work provides genetic evidence that the basal complex is required for precise segmentation and lays the groundwork for a mechanistic understanding of how the parasite contractile ring drives cell division.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10214-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10214-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10214-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().