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Published 18 March 2002. doi:10.1083/jcb.200112086
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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2002/3/1039 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 156, Number 6, March 18, 2002 1039-1050

Article

 A novel polymer of tubulin forms the conoid of Toxoplasma gondii

Ke Hu1, David S. Roos1 and John M. Murray2

1 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
2 Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Address correspondence to Ke Hu, University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Biology, 305 Goddard Laboratories, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018. Tel.: (215) 898-2120. Fax: (215) 746-6697. E-mail: huke{at}mail.sas.upenn.edu

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular parasite, an important human pathogen, and a convenient laboratory model for many other human and veterinary pathogens in the phylum Apicomplexa, such as Plasmodium, Eimeria, and Cryptosporidia. 22 subpellicular microtubules form a scaffold that defines the cell shape of T. gondii. Its cytoskeleton also includes an intricate apical structure consisting of the conoid, two intraconoid microtubules, and two polar rings. The conoid is a 380-nm diameter motile organelle, consisting of fibers wound into a spiral like a compressed spring. FRAP analysis of transgenic T. gondii expressing YFP-{alpha}-tubulin reveals that the conoid fibers are assembled by rapid incorporation of tubulin subunits during early, but not late, stages of cell division. Electron microscopic analysis shows that in the mature conoid, tubulin is arranged into a novel polymer form that is quite different from typical microtubules.

Key Words: Apicomplexan parasites; microtubules; motility; cytoskeleton; cryoelectron microscopy


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