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A conserved region of the MSP‐1 surface protein of Plasmodium falciparum contains a recognition sequence for erythrocyte spectrin.
Author(s) -
Herrera S.,
Rudin W.,
Herrera M.,
Clavijo P.,
Mancilla L.,
Plata C.,
Matile H.,
Certa U.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1993.tb05805.x
Subject(s) - biology , plasmodium falciparum , spectrin , conserved sequence , surface protein , sequence (biology) , genetics , sequence alignment , peptide sequence , computational biology , virology , gene , malaria , immunology , cytoskeleton , cell
The major surface protein MSP‐1 of Plasmodium falciparum blood‐stage malaria parasites contains notably conserved sequence blocks with unknown function. The recombinant protein 190L, which represents such a block, exhibits a high affinity for red blood cell membranes. We demonstrate that both 190L and native MSP‐1 protein bind to the inner red blood cell membrane skeleton protein spectrin. By using overlapping peptides covering the 190L molecule, we show that the spectrin contact site of 190L is included in a linear sequence of 30 amino acid residues. Association of 190L with naturally occurring spectrin deficient red blood cells is drastically reduced. In the same cells parasite invasion is normal, but the intracellular parasite development arrests late in the trophozoite stage. A similar situation arises when synthetic peptides covering the spectrin recognition sequence of 190L are added to P.falciparum cultures. These data and the cellular localization of MSP‐1 suggest the possibility that MSP‐1 associates with spectrin under natural conditions.