Title
Evolutionary Insights into the Microneme-Secreted, Chitinase-Containing High-Molecular-Weight Protein Complexes Involved in Plasmodium Invasion of the Mosquito Midgut
Date Issued
01 January 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Kaur H.
Pacheco M.A.
Garber L.
Escalante A.A.
Yale School of Medicine
Publisher(s)
American Society for Microbiology
Abstract
While general mechanisms by which Plasmodium ookinetes invade the mosquito midgut have been studied, details regarding the interface of the ookinete, specifically its barriers to invasion, such as the proteolytic milieu, the chitin-containing, protein cross-linked peritrophic matrix, and the midgut epithelium, remain to be understood. Here, we review our knowledge of Plasmodium chitinases and the mechanisms by which they mediate ookinetes crossing the peritrophic matrix. The integration of new genomic insights into previous findings advances our understanding of Plasmodium evolution. Recently obtained Plasmodium species genomic data enable identification of the conserved residues in the experimentally demonstrated hetero-multimeric, high-molecular-weight complex comprised of a short chitinase covalently linked to binding partners, von Willebrand factor A domain-related protein (WARP) and secreted ookinete adhesive protein (SOAP). Artificial intelligence-based high-resolution structural modeling using the DeepMind AlphaFold algorithm yielded highly informative three-dimensional structures and insights into how short chitinases, WARP, and SOAP may interact at the atomic level to form the ookinete-secreted peritrophic matrix invasion complex. Elucidating the significance of the divergence of ookinete-secreted micronemal proteins among Plasmodium species may lead to a better understanding of the ookinete invasion machinery and the coevolution of Plasmodium-mosquito interactions.
Volume
90
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Medicina tropical Inmunología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85123855915
PubMed ID
Source
Infection and Immunity
ISSN of the container
0019-9567
Sponsor(s)
We thank Adithyan Menon at Temple University for his work in browsing Plasmodium genomes to help identify genes reported here. The work reported here was partially supported by U.S. Public Health Service grants from the National Institutes of Health, R01AI45999, R21AI053781, and U19AI089681.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus