PETRA III helps to identify a new kind of protein in Plasmodium falciparum
For the first time, scientists have identified a lipocalin protein in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The discovery helps to better understand the life cycle of the parasite that is a major health burden in large parts of the world. The cooperation between the groups of Tim Gilberger from the Centre for Structural Systems Biology CSSB (Cellular Parasitology Department at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine/ Universität Hamburg) at DESY and Matthias Wilmanns from the Hamburg branch of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL describes the discovery in the journal Cell Reports. CSSB is a cooperation of nine institutions, including DESY, that have deputed scientists to the centre.
With an estimated 228 million cases per year worldwide and more than 400,000 deaths, malaria remains one of the most important human health threats. There is no vaccine commercially available. While biologists have revealed many details about how the malaria parasite rapidly feeds on and transforms its host’s red blood cells, there are many unsolved mysteries surrounding the parasite’s life cycle. Using the microscopic facilities available at CSSB in combination with EMBL’s X-ray beamlines at DESY’s research light source PETRA III, the team unraveled a small piece of this mystery with the identification and characterization of the first lipocalin in the most virulent malaria parasite species P. falciparum.
Read more on the PETRA III (at DESY) website
Image: Ribbon diagram of the protein structure of Plasmodium falciparum Lipocalin PfLCN that comes in tertramers, i.e. complexes of four identical molecules. Fluorescence micrographs of the parasite (upper right and lower left) show that the lipocalin accumulates in vacuoles.
Credit: BNITM/EMBL, Paul-Christian Burda/Thomas Crosskey [Source]