title: Further characterization of a 58 kDa Plasmodium berghei phosphoprotein as a cochaperone.
abstract: Molecular chaperones are important for proper protein folding during protein biogenesis. This report describes a protein from Plasmodium berghei which is 30% identical and 40% similar to a recently described mammalian cochaperone, or heat shock protein 70 interacting protein. The P. berghei cochaperone accumulates throughout the trophozoite stage and decreases during the schizont stage. The stage specific expression is consistent with its presumed role in protein folding or protein-protein interactions. The largest difference between the Plasmodium and mammalian sequences is a more extensive domain of imperfect glycine-glycine-methionine-proline (GGMP) tandem repeats in the parasite's cochaperone sequence. Immunofluorescence studies show that the protein is an abundant cytosolic protein of the parasite. However, antibodies raised against the GGMP repeat domain, which is also found in other parasite chaperones, react with both the parasite and host erythrocyte membrane. The reactivity with the host membrane suggests that the parasite exports molecular chaperones into the infected erythrocyte.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. wiser@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Wiser
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Uparanukraw
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Belkum
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: van Doorn
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D015151:Immunoblotting; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: C105063:58-kDa protein, Plasmodium berghei; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins