Last Updated: 22/07/2025
Merozoite gliding motility and erythrocyte invasion by malaria parasite (Fostering Joint International Research)
Objectives
*Original title and text were machine translated from Japanese
This project investigated motility in Plasmodium merozoites. It was previously thought not to exhibit gliding motility but this study revealed that the merozoites actually utilize this unique locomotion for both translocation and host cell invasion.
Plasmodium parasites use a unique form of locomotion termed gliding motility to move through host tissues and invade cells. The process is substrate-dependent and powered by an actomyosin motor that drives the posterior translocation of extracellular adhesins, which in turn propel the parasite forward. Gliding motility is essential for tissue translocation in the sporozoite and ookinete stages, however, the short-lived erythrocyte-invading merozoite stage has never been observed to undergo gliding movement. Here for the first time it is revealed that blood stage Plasmodium merozoites use gliding motility for translocation in addition to host cell invasion. The process is powered by a conserved actomyosin motor and glideosome complex and is regulated by a complex signaling pathway. This significantly enhances current understanding of merozoite-host interactions in malaria parasites.
Jan 2017 — Dec 2020
$132,903
