I am interested in the
molecular mechanisms of protein secretion and protein sorting
in T. gondii,especially it's involvement in the host parasite
relationship. Protein secretion from various secretory organelles
is tightly associated with host cell invasion and the establishment
of a functional parasitophorous vacuole. Furtermore the
parasite has to target nuclear encoded proteins to it's two endosymbiont
organells the mitochondrion and the apicoplast. To study protein
traficing and secretion in in vivo we have established a collection
of transgenic parasites expressing GFP fusion proteins. One of
my longterm goals it to exploit these parasites to isolate parasite
mutants defective in sorting or secretion. Below you find links
to images of some of our mutants. All images show living
intracelluar parasites (8-2 mm) within the parasitophorous
vacuole in human fibroblasts. See our paper
for technical details on GFP expression in T. gondii
GFP
expressing T. gondii transgenics:
parasite surfaceapicoplastrhoptriesmicronemesdense granules and parasitophorous vacuolegolgiendoplasmic reticulumnucleusmicrotubulesbrain cyst (bradyzoite specific expression)
Movies
(*sorry I am still working on uploading these):
How does the apicoplast divide? (Check out our recent paper):
New
toys -- GFP in red:
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