Phospholipid biosynthesis in the oyster protozoan parasite, Perkinsus marinus

Perkinsus marinus is a protozoan parasite that causes high mortality in its commercially and ecologically important host, the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. In order to understand the host-parasite relationship in lipid metabolism, the ability of P. marinus to synthesize phospholipids from polar headgroup precursors was investigated. Pulse/chase experiments were conducted using radiolabled serine, choline, ethanolamine and inositol. Timecourse incubations revealed that in vitro cultured P. marinus meronts can utilize the cytidine diphosphate-diacylglycerol (CDP-DAG) pathway to synthesize phosphatidylinositol (PI) from inositol and phosphatidylserine (PS) from serine. Serine label was also incorporated into phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC). Incubations of P. marinus cells with increasing concentrations of radiolabeled serine resulted in more radioactivity recovered in neutral lipids than in polar lipids at the highest substrate concentration tested (344 microM). This suggests that excess serine label was being utilized for fatty acid synthesis and stored as triacylglycerols. Additional incubations were conducted with radiolabeled choline and ethanolamine at concentrations equimolar to the highest serine concentration tested. Ethanolamine label was also incorporated into PE, PS, PC and LPC. Choline label was incorporated into PC. These results suggest the presence of three pathways for de novo synthesis of phospholipids in P. marinus: CDP-choline, CDP-ethanolamine and CDP-DAG. At equivalent substrate concentrations (344 microM) the highest incorporation of labeled substrate into total phospholipids was with serine followed by ethanolamine and choline, respectively. P. marinus phospholipid biosynthetic capabilities appear to be similar to those of Plasmodium and Trypanosoma species.