Phosphorylation of αSNAP is required for secretory organelle biogenesis in Toxoplasma gondii

Traffic. 2015 Nov 14. doi: 10.1111/tra.12348. [Epub ahead of print]

Stewart RJ1,2, Ferguson DJ3, Whitehead L1, Bradin CH1, Wu HJ1,2, Tonkin CJ1,2.

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Abstract

Upon infection apicomplexan parasites quickly invade host cells and begin a replicative cycle rapidly increasing in number over a short period of time, leading to tissue lysis and disease. The secretory pathway of these highly polarised protozoan parasites tightly controls, in time and space, the biogenesis of specialised structures and organelles required for invasion and intracellular survival. In other systems regulation of protein trafficking can occur by phosphorylation of vesicle fusion machinery. Previously, we have shown that Toxoplasma gondii αSNAP- a protein that controls the disassembly of cis-SNARE complexes- is phosphorylated. Here we show that this post-translational modification is required for the correct function of αSNAP in controlling secretory traffic. We demonstrate that during intracellular development conditional expression of a non-phosphorylatable form of αSNAP results in Golgi fragmentation and vesiculation of all downstream secretory organelles. In addition we show that the vestigial plastid (termed apicoplast), although reported not to be reliant on Golgi trafficking for biogenesis, is also affected upon overexpression of αSNAP and is much more sensitive to the levels of this protein than targeting to other organelles. This work highlights the importance of αSNAP and its phosphorylation in Toxoplasma organelle biogenesis and exposes a hereto-unexplored mechanism of regulation of vesicle fusion during secretory pathway trafficking in apicomplexan parasites.

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KEYWORDS: 

organelle biogenesis; phosphorylation; trafficking; αSNAP

PMID:

 

26566590

 

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]