Plasmodium berghei sporozoite specific genes- PbS10 and PbS23/SSP3 are required for the development of Exo-erythrocytic Forms

Publication date: Available online 26 June 2019Source: Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyAuthor(s): Jyothi Togiri, Rameswara Reddy Segireddy, Babu S. Mastan, Dipti Singh, Surendra Kumar Kolli, Ankit Ghosh, Faisal Mohammed Abdul Al-Nihmi, Mulaka Maruthi, Hadi Hasan Choudhary, Sandeep Dey, Satish Mishra, Kota Arun KumarAbstractPlasmodium sporozoites are infective forms of the parasite to mammalian hepatocytes. Sporozoite surface or secreted proteins likely play an important role in recognition, invasion and successful establishment of hepatocyte infection. By approaches of reverse genetics, we report the functional analysis of two Plasmodium berghei (Pb) sporozoite specific genes- PbS10 and PbS23/SSP3 that encode for proteins with a putative signal peptide. The expression of both genes was high in oocyst and salivary gland sporozoite stages as compared to other life cycle stages and PbS23/SSP3 protein was detected in salivary gland sporozoites. Both mutants were indistinguishable to wild-type parasites with regard to asexual growth in RBC, ability to complete sexual reproduction and form sporozoites in vector host. While the sporozoite stage of both mutants were able to glide and invade hepatocytes normally in vitro and in vivo, PbS10 mutants suffered growth attenuation at an early stage while PbS23/SSP3 mutants manifested defect during late exo-erythrocytic form maturation. Interestingly, both mutants gave rare breakthrough infections, suggesting that while both were criti...
Source: Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Source Type: research