title: Heterologous expression of plasmodial proteins for structural studies and functional annotation.
abstract: Malaria remains the world's most devastating tropical infectious disease with as many as 40% of the world population living in risk areas. The widespread resistance of Plasmodium parasites to the cost-effective chloroquine and antifolates has forced the introduction of more costly drug combinations, such as Coartem. In the absence of a vaccine in the foreseeable future, one strategy to address the growing malaria problem is to identify and characterize new and durable antimalarial drug targets, the majority of which are parasite proteins. Biochemical and structure-activity analysis of these proteins is ultimately essential in the characterization of such targets but requires large amounts of functional protein. Even though heterologous protein production has now become a relatively routine endeavour for most proteins of diverse origins, the functional expression of soluble plasmodial proteins is highly problematic and slows the progress of antimalarial drug target discovery. Here the status quo of heterologous production of plasmodial proteins is presented, constraints are highlighted and alternative strategies and hosts for functional expression and annotation of plasmodial proteins are reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. lbirkholtz@up.ac.za
authors.forename: Lyn-Marie
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Birkholtz
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blatch
authors.forename: Theresa L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Coetzer
authors.forename: Heinrich C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hoppe
authors.forename: Esmaré
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Human
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Zoleka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ngcete
authors.forename: Lyndon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oldfield
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: Addmore
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shonhai
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: Abraham I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Louw
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000235:genetics*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins