Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum and its apicoplast
Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum and its apicoplast
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DOI：
10.1042/bst0380775
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发表时间：
2010-06-01
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
McFadden, Geoffrey I.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kalanon, Ming;McFadden, Geoffrey I.
由疟原虫属寄生虫引起的疟疾仍然是一个主要的全球健康问题。在疟疾和相关的顶复门寄生虫中发现了一种与植物和藻类叶绿体同源的退化质体，这从根本上改变了我们对这些致病原生生物进化起源的看法。我们现在认识到，这一大群寄生虫具有光合作用的祖先，并在动物进化的早期转化为寄生虫。顶复门可能已经寄生在动物界超过5亿年了。残质体存在于大多数顶复门中，是一个重要的组成部分。顶质体功能或遗传的扰动导致寄生虫死亡，使细胞器成为有希望的化疗靶点。质体，包括疟疾寄生虫的质体，本质上是生活在真核宿主内的减少的内共生细菌。这意味着质体具有细菌型代谢途径和管家过程，所有这些都容易受到抗菌化合物的影响。事实上，许多抗菌剂通过阻断质体中的基本过程来杀死疟原虫。此外，一系列针对不需要的植物的质体代谢的除草剂也是杀寄生虫的，使它们成为抗疟疾药物的潜在新先导。在本综述中，我们研究了疟原虫的质体内共生的进化起源，并概述了最近的研究结果，细胞器如何进口核编码的蛋白质，通过一套易位机制的膜，绑定的细胞器。
Malaria, which is caused by species of the parasite genus Plasmodium, remains a major global health problem. A vestigial plastid homologous with the chloroplasts of plants and algae was discovered in malaria and related parasites from the phylum Apicomplexa and has radically changed our view of the evolutionary origins of these disease-causing protists. We now recognize that this large group of parasites had a photosynthetic ancestry and were converted into parasitism early in the evolution of animals. Apicomplexans have probably been parasitizing the animal kingdom for more than 500 million years. The relic plastid persists in most apicomplexans and is an essential component. Perturbation of apicoplast function or inheritance results in parasite death, making the organelle a promising target for chemotherapy. Plastids, including those of malaria parasites, are essentially reduced endosymbiotic bacteria living inside a eukaryotic host. This means that plastids have bacterial-type metabolic pathways and housekeeping processes, all of which are vulnerable to antibacterial compounds. Indeed, many antibacterials kill malaria parasites by blocking essential processes in the plastid. Furthermore, a range of herbicides that target plastid metabolism of undesired plants are also parasiticidal, making them potential new leads for antimalarial drugs. In the present review, we examine the evolutionary origins of the malaria parasite's plastid by endosymbiosis and outline the recent findings on how the organelle imports nuclear-encoded proteins through a set of translocation machineries in the membranes that bound the organelle.