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Identification of a nuclear localization signal in the Plasmodium falciparum CTP: phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase enzyme.
| Content Provider | Europe PMC |
|---|---|
| Author | Izrael, Richard Marton, Lívia Nagy, Gergely N. Pálinkás, Hajnalka L. Kucsma, Nóra Vértessy, Beáta G. |
| Abstract | The phospholipid biosynthesis of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum is a key process for its survival and its inhibition is a validated antimalarial therapeutic approach. The second and rate-limiting step of the de novo phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis is catalysed by CTP: phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase (PfCCT), which has a key regulatory function within the pathway. Here, we investigate the functional impact of the key structural differences and their respective role in the structurally unique pseudo-heterodimer PfCCT protein in a heterologous cellular context using the thermosensitive CCT-mutant CHO-MT58 cell line. We found that a Plasmodium-specific lysine-rich insertion within the catalytic domain of PfCCT acts as a nuclear localization signal and its deletion decreases the nuclear propensity of the protein in the model cell line. We further showed that the putative membrane-binding domain also affected the nuclear localization of the protein. Moreover, activation of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis by phospholipase C treatment induces the partial nuclear-to-cytoplasmic translocation of PfCCT. We additionally investigated the cellular function of several PfCCT truncated constructs in a CHO-MT58 based rescue assay. In absence of the endogenous CCT activity we observed that truncated constructs lacking the lysine-rich insertion, or the membrane-binding domain provided similar cell survival ratio as the full length PfCCT protein. |
| Journal | Scientific Reports [Sci Rep] |
| Volume Number | 10 |
| DOI | 10.1038/s41598-020-76829-1 |
| PubMed Central reference number | PMC7665022 |
| Issue Number | 1 |
| PubMed reference number | 33184408 |
| e-ISSN | 20452322 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| Publisher Date | 2020-11-12 |
| Publisher Place | London |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Image processing Protein translocation Confocal microscopy Malaria Cell biology Cellular imaging |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Multidisciplinary |