Abstract
Proteins containing WD40 domains play important roles in the formation of multiprotein complexes. Little is known about WD40 proteins in the malaria parasite. This report contains the initial description of a WD40 protein that is unique to the genus Plasmodium and possibly closely related genera. The N-terminal portion of this protein consists of seven WD40 repeats that are highly conserved in all Plasmodium species. Following the N-terminal region is a central region that is conserved within the major Plasmodium clades, such as parasites of great apes, monkeys, rodents, and birds, but partially conserved across all Plasmodium species. This central region contains extensive low-complexity sequence and is predicted to have a disordered structure. Proteins with disordered structure generally function in molecular interactions. The C-terminal region is semi-conserved across all Plasmodium species and has no notable features. This WD40 repeat protein likely functions in some aspect of parasite biology that is unique to Plasmodium and this uniqueness makes the protein a possible target for therapeutic intervention.
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Data Availability
Data has been deposited in databases where appropriate and the datasets and materials are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments to the Instituto Nacional de Salud, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia, where the original work was initiated.
Funding
This work was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Vicerrectoria de Investigación y extensión (Strategic Research Project-Hermes 42917), Medicine Faculty (Public Health Department and Laboratorio de equipos comunes), Programa de doctorado del Instituto de Biotecnología, Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias and Doctorado en Medicina Tropical, Universidad de Cartagena- SUE-Caribe. This project was also funded in part by a grant from the Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (Colciencias-project no. 110140820398).
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Cortés, Gladys T.: Investigation, Methodology (gene cloning), Writing — Review & Editing, Conceptualization, Resources, Funding acquisition. Gonzalez Beltran, Martha Margarita: Methodology (molecular modeling). Gómez-Alegría, Claudio J.: Writing — Review & Editing, Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision. Wiser, Mark F.: Writing — Original Draft, Visualization, Formal analysis (in silico), Methodology (molecular modeling), Conceptualization, Supervision.
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Highlights
• Few proteins containing WD40 domains from the malaria parasite have been characterized
• PlasWD40-1 is a WD40 domain-containing protein only found in Plasmodium species
• The WD40 domain of PlasWD40-1 is highly conserved across all Plasmodium species
• A large portion of PlasWD40-1 is composed of low-complexity sequence
• PlasWD40-1 likely plays a role related to the unique biology of Plasmodium
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Cortés, G.T., Beltran, M.M.G., Gómez-Alegría, C.J. et al. Identification of a protein unique to the genus Plasmodium that contains a WD40 repeat domain and extensive low-complexity sequence. Parasitol Res 120, 2617–2629 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07190-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07190-z