Toxoplasma gondii Vps11, a subunit of HOPS and CORVET tethering complexes, is essential for the biogenesis of secretory organelles

Cell Microbiol. 2015 Feb 2. doi: 10.1111/cmi.12426. [Epub ahead of print]

Morlon-Guyot J1, Pastore S, Berry L, Lebrun M, Daher W.

Author information

Abstract

Apicomplexan parasites harbour unique secretory organelles (dense granules, rhoptries and micronemes) that play essential functions in host infection. Toxoplasma gondii parasites seem to possess an atypical endosome-like-compartment, which contains an assortment of proteins that appear to be involved in vesicular sorting and trafficking towards secretory organelles. Recent studies highlighted the essential roles of many regulators such as Rab5A, Rab5C, sortilin-like receptor and syntaxin-6 in secretory organelle biogenesis. However, little is known about the protein complexes that recruit Rab-GTPases and SNAREs for membrane tethering in Apicomplexa. In mammals and yeast, transport, tethering and fusion of vesicles from early endosomes to lysosomes and the vacuole, respectively, are mediated by CORVET and HOPS complexes, both built on the same Vps-C core that includes Vps11 protein. Here, we show that a T. gondii Vps11 orthologue is essential for the biogenesis or proper subcellular localization of secretory organelle proteins. TgVps11 is a dynamic protein that associates with Golgi-endosomal-related-compartments, the vacuole and immature apical secretory organelles. Conditional knock-down of TgVps11 disrupts biogenesis of dense granules, rhoptries and micronemes. As a consequence, parasite motility, invasion, egress and intracellular growth are affected. This phenotype was confirmed with additional knock-down mutants of the HOPS complex. In conclusion, we show that apicomplexan parasites use canonical regulators of the endolysosome system to accomplish essential parasite-specific functions in the biogenesis of their unique secretory organelles.

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KEYWORDS: 

Apicomplexa; Dense granules; Endosomal compartment; Golgi; Membrane fusion; Micronemes; Rab-GTPase; Rhoptries; Secretory organelle biogenesis; Tet-inducible system; Tethering; Toxoplasma gondii; Traffic; Vacuolar Protein Sorting

PMID:

 

25640905

 

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