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  4. Malaria parasites form filamentous cell-to-cell connections during reproduction in the mosquito midgut
 
research article

Malaria parasites form filamentous cell-to-cell connections during reproduction in the mosquito midgut

Rupp, Ingrid
•
Sologub, Ludmilla
•
Williamson, Kim C.
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2011
Cell Research

Physical contact is important for the interaction between animal cells, but it can represent a major challenge for protists like malaria parasites. Recently, novel filamentous cell-cell contacts have been identified in different types of eukaryotic cells and termed nanotubes due to their morphological appearance. Nanotubes represent small dynamic membranous extensions that consist of F-actin and are considered an ancient feature evolved by eukaryotic cells to establish contact for communication. We here describe similar tubular structures in the malaria pathogen Plasmodium falciparum, which emerge from the surfaces of the forming gametes upon gametocyte activation in the mosquito midgut. The filaments can exhibit a length of > 100 mu m and contain the F-actin isoform actin 2. They actively form within a few minutes after gametocyte activation and persist until the zygote transforms into the ookinete. The filaments originate from the parasite plasma membrane, are close ended and express adhesion proteins on their surfaces that are typically found in gametes, like Pfs230, Pfs48/45 or Pfs25, but not the zygote surface protein Pfs28. We show that these tubular structures represent long-distance cell-to-cell connections between sexual stage parasites and demonstrate that they meet the characteristics of nanotubes. We propose that malaria parasites utilize these adhesive "nanotubes" in order to facilitate intercellular contact between gametes during reproduction in the mosquito midgut.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/cr.2010.176
Web of Science ID

WOS:000289230800013

Author(s)
Rupp, Ingrid
Sologub, Ludmilla
Williamson, Kim C.
Scheuermayer, Matthias
Reininger, Luc
Doerig, Christian
Eksi, Saliha
Kombila, Davy U.
Frank, Matthias
Pradel, Gabriele
Date Issued

2011

Published in
Cell Research
Volume

21

Issue

4

Start page

683

End page

696

Subjects

malaria

•

nanotube

•

Plasmodium

•

gamete

•

fertilization

•

transmission

•

mosquito

•

Plasmodium-Falciparum Gametocytes

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Drosophila Imaginal Discs

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Sexual-Stage Antigen

•

Tunneling Nanotubes

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Membrane Nanotubes

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Extensions Cytonemes

•

Electron-Microscopy

•

Toxoplasma-Gondii

•

Immune Cells

•

Protein

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
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Available on Infoscience
December 16, 2011
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/74278
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