Dr. Lilach Sheiner, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow
Tuesday 9th February, 1.00 p.m., Cornwallis Octagon Lecture Theatre 2 (COLT2)
Apicomplexa parasites are global killers causing human and animal diseases like malaria and toxoplasmosis. These eukaryotic protozoan posses two organelles of endosymbiotic origin: a relict plats named the apicoplast and a mitochondrion. We are interested in the mechainism allowing the remarkable tight synchrony and collaboration between both symbionts and parasite cell cycle and with eachother.
An important aspect of this interaction in that the nuclear genome hosts the majority of the genes encoding the symbiont’s proteomes. I will present new insights on how proteins that are encoded in the nuclear genome gain entry into the apicoplast and how this is controlled. Specifically, we explored the role of a potentially new redox pathway in controlling protein import into the apicoplast of T. gondii via oxidative folding.