Repurposing the mitotic machinery to drive cellular elongation and chromatin reorganisation in Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes
Details
Publication Year 2022-08-27,Volume 13,Issue #1,Page 5054
Journal Title
Nature Communications
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 involved in the nuclear microtubule assembly/disassembly process. Depolymerisation of the microtubules using trifluralin prevents elongation and disrupts the chromatin, centromere and kinetochore organisation. We show that the unusual non-mitotic hemispindle plays a central role in chromatin organisation, IMC positioning and subpellicular microtubule formation in gametocytes.
Publisher
NPG
Research Division(s)
Infectious Diseases And Immune Defence
PubMed ID
36030238
Open Access at Publisher's Site
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32579-4
Terms of Use/Rights Notice
Refer to copyright notice on published article.


Creation Date: 2022-08-30 09:11:24
Last Modified: 2022-08-30 09:13:11
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