Summary: TheJournalofExperimentalMedicine
BRIEF DEFINITIVE REPORT
JEM © The Rockefeller University Press $8.00
Vol. 203, No. 9, September 4, 2006 2063­2071 www.jem.org/cgi/doi/10.1084/jem.20061318
2063
Protozoan parasites of phylum Apicomplexa
(for example, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Eimeria,
and Cryptosporidium) represent important hu-
man and veterinary pathogens worldwide (1,
2). Apicomplexans actively invade host cells
and form parasitophorous vacuoles (PVs),
which appear to be secluded from the endo-
cytic and lysosomal compartments of the in-
fected cell (3, 4). Nevertheless, the PV appears
to provide an interface through which the par-
asite acquires nutrients from the host cytosol
for growth and replication and alters innate im-
mune signaling (5, 6). The formation of a non-
fusogenic PV has been classically viewed as an
adaptive mechanism for intracellular survival

Source: Arnold, Jonathan - Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center & Department of Genetics, University of Georgia

Collections: Biotechnology