Cactin is essential for G1 progression in Toxoplasma gondii
Name
Saeij_Cactin is essential.pdf
Size
1.73 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f070afe3de4d7a52b7aba4f88da80741
Author(s)
Szatanek, Tomasz
Anderson-White, Brooke R.
Faugno-Fusci, David M.
White, Michael
Gubbels, Marc-Jan
Saeij, Jeroen
Date Issued
April 2012
Journal
Molecular Microbiology
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Szatanek, Tomasz et al. “Cactin Is Essential for G1 Progression in Toxoplasma Gondii: Cactin Is Essential for Toxoplasma G1 Progression.” Molecular Microbiology 84.3 (2012): 566–577.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite whose rapid lytic replication cycles define its pathogenicity. We identified a temperature-sensitive growth mutant, FV-P6, which irreversibly arrests before the middle of the G1 stage of the tachyzoite cell cycle. This arrest is caused by a point mutation in a gene conserved across eukaryotes, Cactin, whose product localizes to the nucleus. To elucidate the role of TgCactin we performed genome-wide expression profiling. Besides the expected G1 expression profile, many genes associated with the extracellular state as well as with the bradyzoite cyst stage were identified. Consistent with these profiles were the expression of AP2 transcription factors typically associated with extracellular and bradyzoite stage parasites. This suggests a role for TgCactin in control of gene expression. As TgCactin does not contain any functionally defined domains we reasoned TgCactin exerts its function through interactions with other proteins. In support of this model we demonstrated that TgCactin is present in a protein complex and can oligomerize. Taken together, these results suggest that TgCactin acts as a pivotal protein potentially regulating gene expression at several transition points in parasite development.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2012.08044.x
