Analysis parasite protein kinases particularly with regard to their role for host-parasite interaction

蛋白激酶是活细胞内稳态的关键调节元件。它们参与细胞分裂、分化和适应不断变化的环境等基本过程。在利什曼原虫的生命周期中，寄生虫呈现两种生化和形态学上可区分的形式，即白蛉中的前鞭毛体和受感染哺乳动物巨噬细胞中的无鞭毛体。细胞内无鞭毛体的生存和增殖需要一组丝裂原活化蛋白激酶同源物。在这个项目中，我们研究了寄生虫和它的宿主细胞的相互作用。我们使用激酶缺失突变体和寄生虫表达激酶敏感的特定抑制剂在感染实验监测寄生虫的生存。为了阐明寄生虫激酶如何影响病原体存活的机制，我们寻找相应的激酶底物。

Protein kinases are key regulatory elements in the homeostasis of living cells. They are involved in such basic processes as cell division, differentiation and adaptation to a changing environment. During their life cycle Leishmania parasites assume two biochemically and morphologically distinguishable forms, the promastigotes in the sandfly and the amastigotes in the macrophages of the infected mammal. The intracellular amastigote requires a set of mitogen-activated protein kinase homologues for its survival and proliferation. In this project we investigate the interaction of the parasite and its host cell. We use kinase deletion mutants and parasites expressing kinases sensitised for a specific inhibitor in infection experiments monitoring parasite survival. To unravel the mechanism how a parasite kinase influences the survival of the pathogen we search for the respective kinase substrate.