Last Updated: 21/11/2014
Exploration of the singularities of the sugar nucleotide metabolism and description of novel glycosylation pathways in the malaria parasite
Objectives
The aim of this proposal is to probe essential and/or unanticipated enzymatic steps in the metabolic routes that are unidentified in the P. falciparum genome.
Among these unresolved issues are:
- the identity of the P. falciparum putative glucosaminephosphate N-acetyltransferase (GNA) that converts glucosamine-6-P (GlcN6P) to GlcNAc6P;
- the source (and biological significance) of the UDP-galactose (UDP-Gal) pool detected in the blood-stages of the parasite.
- Furthermore, previous studies have shown the presence of GDP-fucose (GDP-Fuc) pools through the asexual stages of P. falciparum life-cycle at levels comparable to other protozoan parasites.
Glycosylation represents one of the most common and heterogeneous post-translational modifications of proteins and complex glycoconjugates are involved in almost every biological process. Thus glycoconjugates play a major role in nearly every human disease. In contrast to the prevailing idea that the Plasmodium glycoconjugate structures are limited to glycosylphosphatidylinosytil (GPI) anchors, our work shows that other sugar nucleotide and glycosylation pathways are active in the blood stages of the malaria parasite.
Jan 2014 — Jun 2017
$158,534
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