A forward genetic screen identifies a negative regulator of rapid Ca2+-dependent cell egress (MS1) in the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii

作者:McCoy James M; Stewart Rebecca J; Uboldi Alessandro D; Li Dongdi; Schroder Jan; Scott Nicollas E; Papenfuss Anthony T; Lehane Adele M; Foster Leonard J; Tonkin Christopher J*
来源:JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, 2017, 292(18): 7662-7674.
DOI:10.1074/jbc.M117.775114

摘要

Toxoplasma gondii, like all apicomplexan parasites, uses Ca2+ signaling pathways to activate gliding motility to power tissue dissemination and host cell invasion and egress. A group of plant-like Ca2+-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) transduces cytosolic Ca2+ flux into enzymatic activity, but how they function is poorly understood. To investigate how Ca2+ signaling activates egress through CDPKs, we performed a forward genetic screen to isolate gain-of-function mutants from an egress-deficient cdpk3 knockout strain. We recovered mutants that regained the ability to egress from host cells that harbored mutations in the gene Suppressor of Ca2+-dependent Egress 1 (SCE1). Global phosphoproteomic analysis showed that SCE1 deletion restored many cdpk3-dependent phosphorylation events to near wild-type levels. We also show that CDPK3-dependent SCE1 phosphorylation is required to relieve its suppressive activity to potentiate egress. In summary, our work has uncovered a novel component and suppressor of Ca2+-dependent cell egress during Toxoplasma lytic growth.