A tetracycline-repressible transactivator system to study essential genes in malaria parasites

Cell Host Microbe. 2012 Dec 13;12(6):824-34. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2012.10.016.

A tetracycline-repressible transactivator system to study essential genes in malaria parasites

Pino P, Sebastian S, Kim EA, Bush E, Brochet M, Volkmann K, Kozlowski E, Llinás M, Billker O, Soldati-Favre D.

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, CMU, University of Geneva, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.

A major obstacle in analyzing gene function in apicomplexan parasites is the absence of a practical regulatable expression system. Here, we identified functional transcriptional activation domains within Apicomplexan AP2 (ApiAP2) family transcription factors. These ApiAP2 transactivation domains were validated in blood-, liver-, and mosquito-stage parasites and used to create a robust conditional expression system for stage-specific, tetracycline-dependent gene regulation in Toxoplasma gondii, Plasmodium berghei, and Plasmodium falciparum. To demonstrate the utility of this system, we created conditional knockdowns of two essential P. berghei genes: profilin (PRF), a protein implicated in parasite invasion, and N-myristoyltransferase (NMT), which catalyzes protein acylation. Tetracycline-induced repression of PRF and NMT expression resulted in a dramatic reduction in parasite viability. This efficient regulatable system will allow for the functional characterization of essential proteins that are found in these important parasites.

PMID: 23245327 [PubMed - in process]