Parasite biology articles from across Nature Portfolio

EB are conserved microtubule (MT) plus-end binding proteins. Here, Yang et al. report that Plasmodium EB1 possesses distinct MT-lattice affinity and decorates the full-length of spindle MTs. Gene deletion impairs the spindle-kinetochore lateral attachment, leading to anucleated male gametes.

Leishmania is a unicellular protozoan that has limited transcriptional control. Here, the authors show that translational control is a major mechanism of antimony drug resistance in Leishmania. They observe a dramatic translatome reprogramming during development of resistance to the drug and report translational control as a major driver of antimony-resistant phenotypes.

Antigenic variation in protozoan parasites is considered a spontaneous process and antibodies to these variant antigens were cytotoxic. The clearance of the former antigen during antigenic switching is thought to occur by dilution of the original antigen. In this work, the authors provide in vitro and in vivo evidence, that low concentrations of antibodies against Variant-specific Surface Proteins (VSPs) of the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia are not cytotoxic but induce a robust stimulation of the switching process and the release of the former antigen into extracellular microvesicles. This process is mediated by antibody-induced clustering of VSPs into L_o-phase membrane microdomains through the raftophilic capability of the highly conserved transmembrane domain of the VSPs.

Plasmodium falciparum is known to secrete an aspartic protease called plasmepsin X. Here, Triglia et al present a characterisation of plasmepsin X function in the context of erythrocyte invasion and its regulation of PCRCR, a complex that anchors the leading vaccine candidate PfRh5 to the parasite surface.