Toxoplasma control of host apoptosis: the art of not biting too hard the hand that feeds you
Authors:Sébastien Besteiro
doi: 10.15698/mic2015.06.209
Volume 2, pp. 178 to 181, published 30/05/2015.
DIMNP, UMR 5235 CNRS, Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France.
Keywords:
Toxoplasma, apoptosis, apoptosome, virulence, host control
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Sébastien Besteiro (2015). Toxoplasma control of host apoptosis: the art of not biting too hard the hand that feeds you. Microbial Cell 2(6): 178-181.
© 2015 Besteiro. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that is able to infect a multitude of different vertebrate hosts and can survive in virtually any nucleated cell. The tachyzoite form of the parasite is very efficient at actively invading its host cells, where it establishes itself in a parasitophorous vacuole (PV). In this non fusogenic vacuole, the parasite is able to escape degradation from the endolysosomal system (Jones et al., J Exp Med 1972). The host endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria are recruited to the periphery of the PV membrane shortly after invasion (Fig. 1), possibly as a source of nutrient for the parasite (Sinai et al., J Cell Sci 1997). Tachyzoites will subsequently undergo multiple rounds of cell division before being able to egress and, as a consequence, lyse the host cell (Fig. 1).