Toxoplasma, or the discovery of a heterophage

Trends Parasitol. 2014 Aug 29. pii: S1471-4922(14)00143-3. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2014.08.005. [Epub ahead of print

 

Coppens I.

In mammalian cells, the protozoan pathogen Toxoplasma resides in a nonfusiogenic vacuole that segregates it from host cell resources. How the parasite acquires nutrients and whether it is capable of internalizing host macromolecules have been long-standing mysteries. By exploiting a mutant of Toxoplasma lacking the cathepsin protease L, Dou et al. observed the accumulation of host cytosolic-derived proteins in a multivesicular post-Golgi compartment, which establishes the existence of a functional heterophagic pathway in Toxoplasma.

KEYWORDS:

Toxoplasma; intracellular parasitism; macromolecule digestion; nutrient uptake; protease cathepsins

PMID:

25178740

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]