Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0741, USA.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2012 Sep;87(3):412-7. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2012.11-0609. Epub 2012 Jul 16.
Invasion of the mosquito midgut by the Plasmodium ookinete determines the success of transmission of malaria parasites from humans to mosquitoes and therefore, is a potential target for molecular intervention. Here, we show higher-resolution ultrastructural details of developing and mature P. gallinaceum ookinetes than previously available. Improved fixation and processing methods yielded substantially improved transmission electron micrographs of ookinetes, particularly with regard to visualization of subcellular secretory and other organelles. These new images provide new insights into the synthesis and function of vital invasive machinery focused on the following features: apical membrane protrusions presumptively used for attachment and protein secretion, dark spherical bodies at the apical end of the mature ookinete, and the presence of a dense array of micronemes apposed to microtubules at the apical end of the ookinete involved in constitutive secretion. This work advances understanding of the molecular and cellular details of the Plasmodium ookinete and provides the basis of future, more detailed mechanistic experimentation on the biology of the Plasmodium ookinete.
疟原虫配子体入侵蚊子的中肠决定了疟原虫从人类传播到蚊子的成功与否,因此是分子干预的潜在目标。在这里,我们展示了比以前更详细的发育中和成熟的禽疟原虫配子体的高分辨率超微结构细节。改进的固定和处理方法大大提高了配子体的透射电镜图像质量,特别是在观察亚细胞分泌和其他细胞器方面。这些新的图像为专注于以下特征的重要入侵机制的合成和功能提供了新的见解:推测用于附着和蛋白质分泌的顶端膜突起、成熟配子体顶端的暗球形体,以及在参与组成型分泌的配子体顶端存在与微管并列的密集排列的微线体。这项工作推进了对疟原虫配子体的分子和细胞细节的理解,并为未来更详细的疟原虫配子体生物学机制实验提供了基础。