Protein O-Fucosyltransferase Is Required for the Efficient Invasion of Hepatocytes by Sporozoites.

The O-fucosylation of the thrombospondin type I repeat (TSR) domain is important for TSR-containing proteins' optimal folding and stability. However, the importance of O-fucosyltransferase 2 (POFut2) remains unclear due to two different reports. Here, we disrupted the gene in and demonstrated that KO parasites develop normally in blood and mosquito stages but show reduced infectivity in mice. We found that the reduced infectivity of KO sporozoites was due to a diminished level of TRAP that affected the parasite gliding motility and hepatocyte infectivity. Using all-atom MD simulation, we also hypothesize that O-fucosylation impacts the TSR domain's stability more than its heparin binding capacity.