Publication details
Cell motility in marine early emerging apicomplexans
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Apicomplexans represent one of the most successful and diverse group of unicellular parasites exhibiting unique adaptations to their life style. Many of them are causative agents for major human diseases (such as malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis), which are still poorly controlled and require development of novel sustainable therapies. The apicomplexan cytoskeletal elements play an important role in various life processes and thus they represent a potential target for chemotherapeutic intervention. Their highly motile invasive zoites use a unique conserved form of actin-based gliding motility for movement, host cell invasion and tissue traversal. Our intent is to investigate if the glideosome concept, proposed in Toxoplasma, could be also applied to basal lineages of Apicomplexa. We focus on deep-branching groups, especially gregarines and protococcidians, restricted to invertebrates (Diakin et al. 2012). They are important from an evolutionary perspective because of their basal position and recent analyses pointing out close affinity of gregarines with Cryptosporidium (Valigurová et al. 2007, 2008). Improved knowledge about their motility, including gliding, pendular or rolling and metabolic movements, as well as invasion strategies (Valigurová et al. 2009, Valigurová 2012) would offer significant insights into the biology and evolutionary strategies of Apicomplexa. The motility mechanisms need further investigations to integrate the structural information along with biochemical and molecular analyses. |
| Related projects: |