Plastid-to-nucleus signalling in Plasmodium

疟疾是由单细胞寄生虫引起的。非常令人惊讶的是，这种寄生虫(以及弓形虫等相关寄生虫，也可以致病)的祖先是光合作用的。与植物和藻类一样，它们的细胞含有光合作用的场所--叶绿体。虽然疟原虫不再进行光合作用，但它仍然保留着叶绿体的残留物，称为质外体，这是寄生虫生存所必需的。许多治疗疟疾的药物，如克林霉素，都是通过干扰疟原虫叶绿体发挥作用的。叶绿体中的许多蛋白质是由细胞核中存在的基因在细胞的其他地方制造的，并在制造后输入到叶绿体中。我们相信，叶绿体可以发出信号，告诉细胞核何时需要这些蛋白质，我们想要测试这一想法。我们知道植物和藻类的叶绿体也会发生类似的情况，所以我们知道如何用疟原虫进行测试。如果我们能证明这种信号发生了，我们就可以开始了解如何干扰它--这可能会导致治疗疟疾的新药。

Malaria is caused by a single-celled parasite. Very surprisingly, the ancestors of this parasite (and related ones like Toxoplasma, which can also cause disease) were photosynthetic. Like plants and algae, their cells contained chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis. Although Plasmodium is no longer photosynthetic, it still has the remains of the chloroplast, called the apicoplast, and this is essential for the parasite to live. Many drugs for malaria, such as clindamycin, work by interfering with the the Plasmodium chloroplast. Many of the proteins in the chloroplast are made elsewhere in the cell, from genes present in the nucleus, and imported into the chloroplast after they have been made. We believe that the chloroplast can send a signal to tell the nucleus when it needs these proteins, and we want to test this idea. We know that something similar happens with the chloroplasts of plants and algae, so we know how to test it with Plasmodium. If we can show this signalling happens, we can start to understand how to interfere with it - and this may lead to new drugs for treating malaria.