Toxoplasma gondii deoxyribose phosphate aldolase-like protein (TgDPA) interacts with actin depolymerizing factor (TgADF)

Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2010 Apr 27. [Epub ahead of print]

Toxoplasma gondii deoxyribose phosphate aldolase-like protein (TgDPA) interacts with actin depolymerizing factor (TgADF) to enhance the actin filament dynamics in the bradyzoite stage

Ueno A, Dautu G, Saiki E, Haga K, Igarashi M.

National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases (NRCPD), Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, 2-13 Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, 080-8555, Japan.

Abstract
The Toxoplasma gondii deoxyribose phosphate aldolase-like (TgDPA) gene is expressed predominantly in bradyzoites. This finding allowed us to infer that TgDPA is important in the tachyzoite-to-bradyzoite development or maintenance of cyst structure although the function of this gene is still unknown. We conducted yeast two-hybrid screening to identify proteins interacting with TgDPA, and the actin depolymerizing factor (TgADF) gene was obtained. Co-immunoprecipitation and a GST pull-down assay demonstrated that TgDPA interacts with TgADF. To reveal the significance of the protein-protein interaction between TgDPA and TgADF, actin polymerization and disassembly kinetics were examined. Addition of GST-TgDPA to TgADF lowered the extent of actin polymerization and enhanced the filamentous actin disassembly. These results demonstrated that this is the novel protein-protein interaction in T. gondii, and that TgDPA can enhance the activity of TgADF. This phenomenon might play an important role in T. gondii bradyzoites by affecting the actin turnover. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V.

PMID: 20433874 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]