gms | German Medical Science

11th Malaria Meeting

Malaria Group / Section Antiparasitic Chemotherapy of the Paul-Ehrlich-Society (PEG e. V.) in cooperation with the German Society for Tropical Medicine and International Health (DTG e. V.) and the German Society for Parasitology (DGP e. V.)

08.11. - 09.11.2013, Aachen

Live-cell imaging of mitogen-activated protein kinase localization in Plasmodium berghei liver stage parasites

Meeting Abstract

  • Jannika Katharina Wierk - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  • Maria Kamper - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  • Heidrun von Thien - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  • Anna Bachmann - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  • Egbert Tannich - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  • Volker Theo Heussler - Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Christina Deschermeier - Department of Molecular Parasitology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany

11th Malaria Meeting. Aachen, 08.-09.11.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. Doc13mal21

doi: 10.3205/13mal21, urn:nbn:de:0183-13mal218

Published: January 29, 2014

© 2014 Wierk et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) mediate a variety of cellular functions like stress response, proliferation and differentiation in eukaryotic cells. Two MAPK homologs designated as MAPK1 and MAPK2 have been identified in Plasmodium.

For Plasmodium berghei liver stage parasites, transcription of both genes was confirmed by RT-PCR. GFP-tagged PbMAPK1, expressed either under control of the strong constitutive EEF1a promoter or the endogenous pbmapk1 promoter, displayed a stage-dependant and dynamic subcellular localization pattern during liver stage development. In the early liver schizont, PbMAPK1 localized inside the parasite’s nuclei, whereas a distinct localization of PbMAPK1 in comma/ring-shaped structures in proximity to the parasite’s nuclei and the invaginating parasite membrane was observed during late liver stage development. In contrast, GFP-tagged PbMAPK2 showed a constitutive association with the dividing parasite nuclei. PbMAPK1 knock-out parasites displayed normal host cell invasion and completion of in vitro liver stage development.

To further characterize the PbMAPK1 localization in late liver stage parasites, subcellular compartments putatively related to the PbMAPK1 localization were visualized by live-cell imaging of transgenic parasites expressing GFP-tagged fusion proteins targeting phosphoinositides and structures involved in microtubular organization.