Journal
FEBS LETTERS
Volume 584, Issue 3, Pages 549-554Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.11.097
Keywords
Plastid; Apicoplast; Malaria; Carbon; Energy; Plasmodium
Funding
- National Health and Medical Research Council Program
- Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Transregional Collaborative Research Center TR1
- DFG [WE 2231/6-1]
- Australian Federal Government
- University of Melbourne
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The malaria parasite harbours an indispensable plastid known as the 'apicoplast'. The apicoplast's exact role remains uncertain, but it houses components involved in fatty acid, isoprenoid and haem biosyntheses. These pathways offer opportunities to develop anti-malarials. In the absence of photosynthesis, how apicoplast anabolism is fuelled is unclear. Here we investigated plant-like transporters of the apicoplast and measured their substrate preferences using a novel cell-free assay system to explore the carbon and energy sources of the apicoplast. The transporters exchange triose phosphate and phosphoenolpyruvate for inorganic phosphate, demonstrating that the apicoplast taps into host-derived glucose to fuel its metabolism. (C) 2009 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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