Direct manipulation of malaria parasites with optical tweezers reveals distinct functions of Plasmodium surface proteins.

摘要: Plasmodium sporozoite motility is essential for establishing malaria infections. It depends on initial adhesion to a substrate as well the continuous turnover of discrete sites. Adhesion and are mediated by dynamic actin cytoskeleton surface proteins. The mode formation integration forces into fast forward locomotion remain largely unknown. Here, we use optical tweezers directly trap individual parasites probe formation. We find that sporozoites lacking proteins TRAP S6 display distinct defects in adhesion; trap(-) adhere preferentially with their front end, while s6(-) show no such preference. cohesive strength site differently affected filament depolymerization at sites along parasite sporozoites. These spatial differences between functional interaction ...