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Two Plasmodium Rhomboid Proteases Preferentially Cleave Different Adhesins Implicated in All Invasive Stages of Malaria

Figure 1

P. falciparum Transmembrane Adhesins Involved in Host-Cell Invasion

(A) A generalized schematic of the 14 Plasmodium adhesins analyzed in this study. Sizes of the molecules are meant to represent their relative sizes but are not to scale (N-termini are leftmost). Indicated domains are SP, signal peptide; TM, transmembrane domain; vW Adom, vonWillebrand A domain; T, thrombospondin; and Pro, prodomain. The Toxoplasma MIC2 adhesin is shown for comparison.

(B) Sequence of Plasmodium adhesin transmembrane domains (in capital letters) compared to those of Drosophila Spitz and Toxoplasma MIC2, with the putative membrane boundaries depicted as two vertical lines. Residues conducive for rhomboid cleavage are shown in green, while those that interfere with cleavage are in red.

(C) Cleavage of GFP-tagged Plasmodium adhesins by DmRho-1 (Dm) was examined in transiently transfected COS cells by anti-GFP Western analysis of media fractions. Cleaved adhesins are rapidly secreted into the cell culture media, while the cell fractions are shown as controls. Molecular weight standards in kDa are denoted to the right of each panel.

Figure 1

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020113.g001