Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Malaria parasites suffer severe losses in the mosquito as they cross the midgut, haemolymph and salivary gland tissues, in part caused by immune responses of the insect. The parasite compensates for these losses by multiplying during the oocyst stage to form the infectious sporozoites. Upon human infection, malaria parasites are again attenuated by sustained immune attack. Here, we report a single copy gene that is highly conserved amongst Plasmodium species that encodes a secreted protein named PxSR. The predicted protein is composed of a unique combination of metazoan protein domains that have been previously associated with immune recognition/activation and lipid/protein adhesion interactions at the cell surface, namely: (i) scavenger receptor cysteine rich (SRCR); (ii) pentraxin (PTX); (iii) polycystine-1, lipoxygenase, alpha toxin (LH2/PLAT); (iv) Limulus clotting factor C, Coch-5b2 and Lgl1 (LCCL). In our assessment the PxSR molecule is completely novel in biology and is only found in Apicomplexa parasites. We show that PxSR is expressed in sporozoites of both human and rodent malaria species. Disruption of the PbSR gene in the rodent malaria parasite P. berghei results in parasites that form normal numbers of oocysts, but fail to produce any sporozoites. We suggest that, in addition to a role in sporogonic development, PxSR may have a multiplicity of functions.
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PMID:A malaria scavenger receptor-like protein essential for parasite development. 1235 19

Plasmodium ovale curtisi and Plasmodium ovale wallikeri are distinct species of malaria parasite which are sympatric throughout the tropics, except for the Americas. Despite this complete overlap in geographic range, these two species do not recombine. Although morphologically very similar, the two taxa must possess distinct characters which prevent recombination between them. We hypothesised that proteins required for sexual reproduction have sufficiently diverged between the two species to prevent recombination in any mosquito blood meal in which gametocytes of both species are ingested. In order to investigate possible barriers to inter-species mating between P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri, homologues of genes encoding sexual stage proteins in other plasmodia were identified and compared between the two species. Database searches with motifs for 6-cysteine, Limulus Coagulation factor C domain-containing proteins and other relevant sexual stage proteins in the genus Plasmodium were performed in the available P. ovale curtisi partial genome database (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK). Sequence fragments obtained were used as the basis for PCR walking along each gene of interest in reference isolates of both P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri. Sequence alignment of the homologues of each gene in each species showed complete dimorphism across all isolates. In conclusion, substantial divergence between sexual stage proteins in the two P. ovale spp. was observed, providing further evidence that these do not recombine in nature. Incompatibility of proteins involved in sexual development and fertilisation thus remains a plausible explanation for the observed lack of natural recombination between P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri.
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PMID:Dimorphism in genes encoding sexual-stage proteins of Plasmodium ovale curtisi and Plasmodium ovale wallikeri. 2581 62