The methylerythritol phosphate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis in coccidia

Exp Parasitol. 2007 Feb 21; [Epub ahead of print]

The methylerythritol phosphate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis in coccidia: Presence and sensitivity to fosmidomycin.

Clastre M, Goubard A, Prel A, Mincheva Z, Viaud-Massuart MC, Bout D, Rideau M, Velge-Roussel F, Laurent F.

EA2106 Biomolecules et Biotechnologies Vegetales, UFR Sciences Pharmaceutiques, Universite de Tours, 37200 Tours, France.

The apicoplast is a recently discovered, plastid-like organelle present in most apicomplexa. The methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway involved in isoprenoid biosynthesis is one of the metabolic pathways associated with the apicoplast, and is a new promising therapeutic target in Plasmodium falciparum. Here, we check the presence of isoprenoid genes in four coccidian parasites according to genome database searches. Cryptosporidium parvum and C. hominis, which have no plastid genome, lack the MEP pathway. In contrast, gene expression studies suggest that this metabolic pathway is present in several development stages of Eimeria tenella and in tachyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii. We studied the potential of fosmidomycin, an antimalarial drug blocking the MEP pathway, to inhibit E. tenella and T. gondii growth in vitro. The drug was poorly effective even at high concentrations. Thus, both fosmidomycin sensitivity and isoprenoid metabolism differs substantially between apicomplexan species.

PMID: 17399705 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]