title: Construction and use of Plasmodium falciparum phage display libraries to identify host parasite interactions.
abstract: BACKGROUND: The development of Plasmodium falciparum within human erythrocytes induces a wide array of changes in the ultrastructure, function and antigenic properties of the host cell. Numerous proteins encoded by the parasite have been shown to interact with the erythrocyte membrane. The identification of new interactions between human erythrocyte and P. falciparum proteins has formed a key area of malaria research. To circumvent the difficulties provided by conventional protein techniques, a novel application of the phage display technology was utilised. METHODS: P. falciparum phage display libraries were created and biopanned against purified erythrocyte membrane proteins. The identification of interacting and in-frame amino acid sequences was achieved by sequencing parasite cDNA inserts and performing bioinformatic analyses in the PlasmoDB database. RESULTS: Following four rounds of biopanning, sequencing and bioinformatic investigations, seven P. falciparum proteins with significant binding specificity toward human erythrocyte spectrin and protein 4.1 were identified. The specificity of these P. falciparum proteins were demonstrated by the marked enrichment of the respective in-frame binding sequences from a fourth round phage display library. CONCLUSION: The construction and biopanning of P. falciparum phage display expression libraries provide a novel approach for the identification of new interactions between the parasite and the erythrocyte membrane.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, National Health Laboratory Services, School of Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa. theresa.coetzer@nhls.ac.za
authors.forename: Sonja B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Lauterbach
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lanzillotti
authors.forename: Theresa L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Coetzer