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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Understanding the Development of Compensatory Pathways in a Mutant Malaria Parasite Harbouring Hypomorphic Allele of Plant-Like Kinases
Published on: November 22, 2024
Crystallization and preliminary structural characterization of the two actin-depolymerization factors of the malaria
Jani Huttu1, Bishal Kumar Singh, Saligram Prabhakar Bhargav
1Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and University of Hamburg, DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The malaria parasite Plasmodium depends on its actin-based motor system for motility and host-cell invasion. Actin-depolymerization factors are important regulatory proteins that affect the rate of actin turnover. Plasmodium has two actin-depolymerization factors which seem to have different functions and display low sequence homology to the higher eukaryotic family members. Plasmodium actin-depolymerization factors 1 and 2 have been crystallized. The crystals diffracted X-rays to maximum resolutions of 2.0 and 2.1 A and belonged to space groups P3(1)21 or P3(2)21, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 68.8, c = 76.0 A, and P2(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = 111.6, b = 57.9, c = 40.5 A, respectively, indicating the presence of one or two molecules per asymmetric unit in both cases.
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