Protein-export pathway illuminated

摘要

Malaria parasites export hundreds of proteins into the red blood cells that they infect. These proteins increase nutrient uptake from blood plasma, facilitate adhesion of the infected cell to endothelial cells in blood vessels and markedly remodel the red blood cell for the parasites benefit. A parasite protein complex called Plasmodium trans- locon of exported proteins (PTEX) has been proposed to traffic these proteins across the membrane of the cellular vacuole that separates the parasite from the cytoplasm of the infected cell. In two papers in this issue, Beck et al. and Elsworth et al. definitively show protein transport through PTEX.