School of Botany - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Dissecting apicoplast targeting in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Foth, BJ ; Ralph, SA ; Tonkin, CJ ; Struck, NS ; Fraunholz, M ; Roos, DS ; Cowman, AF ; McFadden, GI (AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE, 2003-01-31)

Transit peptides mediate protein targeting into plastids and are only poorly understood. We extracted amino acid features from transit peptides that target proteins to the relict plastid (apicoplast) of malaria parasites. Based on these amino acid characteristics, we identified 466 putative apicoplast proteins in the Plasmodium falciparum genome. Altering the specific charge characteristics in a model transit peptide by site-directed mutagenesis severely disrupted organellar targeting in vivo. Similarly, putative Hsp70 (DnaK) binding sites present in the transit peptide proved to be important for correct targeting.