Mitochondrial association : a new window of opportunity for toxoplasma gondii?

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
Protozoan and prokaryotic pathogens are able to recruit mitochondria to the vacuoles in which they grow (Friis, 1972; Horwitz, 1983), in mammalian and protozoan cells. The functional significance of the recruitment and association of this phenomenon in Toxoplasma-infected cells has been a subject of speculation since it was first described in the early 1970s (Jones et al., 1972). Previous work has proposed Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry protein 2 (Sinai and Joiner, 2001) as the physical link that tethers host mitochondria to the parasitophorous vacuole and conventional wisdom since has suggested that mitochondrial recruitment served a nutritional function supplementary to the parasite. A recent analysis of the ROP2 structure raised questions about this model ((Labesse et al., 2009; Reese and Boothroyd, 2009). Chapter II describes the effect of deleting ROP2 on mitochondrial association while Chapter III describes the identification of a novel mediator of mitochondrial association, Mitochondrial association factor I (MAF1) and experiments that attempt to answer the role of this remarkable phenomenon in the host-pathogen interaction. Chapter IV describes a project undertaken to determine the impact of Toxoplasma gondii infection in humans acutely and chronically infected in different geographical regions. Chapter V concludes with a discussion of future directions for further characterization of host mitochondrial association in the host response to microbial infection.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic; electronic resource; remote
Extent 1 online resource.
Publication date 2013
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Associated with Pernas, Lena
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Primary advisor Boothroyd, John C
Thesis advisor Boothroyd, John C
Thesis advisor Cyert, Martha S, 1958-
Thesis advisor Davis, Mark M
Thesis advisor Singh, Upinder, (Physician)
Advisor Cyert, Martha S, 1958-
Advisor Davis, Mark M
Advisor Singh, Upinder, (Physician)

Subjects

Genre Theses

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Lena Pernas.
Note Submitted to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Thesis Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2013 by Lena Farah Pernas
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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