Interaction between Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry neck protein 4 and host cellular β-tubulin

Sci Rep. 2013 Nov 12;3:3199. doi: 10.1038/srep03199.

Characterization of the interaction between Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry neck protein 4 and host cellular β-tubulin

Takemae H, Sugi T, Kobayashi K, Gong H, Ishiwa A, Recuenco FC, Murakoshi F, Iwanaga T, Inomata A, Horimoto T, Akashi H, Kato K.

Source

1] National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan [2] Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.

Abstract

Toxoplasma rhoptry neck protein 4 (TgRON4) is a component of the moving junction macromolecular complex that plays a central role during invasion. TgRON4 is exposed on the cytosolic side of the host cell during invasion, but its molecular interactions remain unclear. Here, we identified host cellular β-tubulin as a binding partner of TgRON4, but not Plasmodium RON4. Coimmunoprecipitation studies in mammalian cells demonstrated that the C-terminal 15-kDa region of β-tubulin was sufficient for binding to TgRON4, and that a 17-kDa region in the proximal C-terminus of TgRON4 was required for binding to the C-terminal region of β-tubulin. Analysis of T. gondii-infected lysates from CHO cells expressing the TgRON4-binding region showed that the C-terminal region of β-tubulin interacted with TgRON4 at early invasion step. Our results provide evidence for a parasite-specific interaction between TgRON4 and the host cell cytoskeleton in parasite-infected cells.

PMID:

 

24217438

 

[PubMed - in process] 

PMCID:

 

PMC3824165