Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva, CMU, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva, CMU, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2021 Oct;63:250-258. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2021.07.016. Epub 2021 Aug 26.
The apicoplast is the relict of a plastid organelle found in several disease-causing apicomplexan parasites such as Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii. In these organisms, the organelle has lost its photosynthetic capability but harbours several fitness-conferring or essential metabolic pathways. Although maintaining the apicoplast and fuelling the metabolic pathways within requires the challenging constant import and export of numerous metabolites across its four membranes, only few apicoplast transporters have been identified to date, most of which are orphan transporters. Here we review the roles of metabolic pathways within the apicoplast and what is currently known about the few identified apicoplast metabolite transporters. We discuss what metabolites must get in and out of the apicoplast, the many transporters that are yet to be discovered, and what role these might play in parasite metabolism and as putative drug targets.
类质体是一种在几种致病顶复门寄生虫中发现的质体细胞器的残余物，如疟原虫和刚地弓形虫。在这些生物中，该细胞器已经失去了其光合作用能力，但却拥有几个赋予适应性或必需的代谢途径。尽管维持类质体并为其内部的代谢途径提供燃料需要在其四个膜上不断地输入和输出大量代谢物，但迄今为止只鉴定出少数类质体转运蛋白，其中大多数都是孤儿转运蛋白。在这里，我们回顾了类质体内部代谢途径的作用以及目前已知的少数几种鉴定出的类质体代谢物转运蛋白。我们讨论了哪些代谢物必须进出类质体，还有许多尚未发现的转运蛋白，以及这些转运蛋白在寄生虫代谢和作为潜在药物靶点方面可能发挥的作用。
