Mutant/mutation
The mutant expresses a C-terminal GFP-tagged version of APC3

Protein (function)
One essential component that drives the cell cycle, and particularly mitosis, in many eukaryotic systems is the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C). The APC/C is a multi-subunit E3 ubiquitin ligase that promotes cell-cycle progression by covalently tagging regulators such as securin and cyclin B1 with ubiquitin leading to their proteolysis by the proteasome. The mammalian APC/C has 14 core components, and several key adaptor subunits, including cell division cycle protein 20 (CDC20) and the related CDH1. Intriguingly, only four APC/C components have been identified as coded by the Plasmodium genome: APC10, APC11 and APC3 (a tetratricopeptide repeat [TPR] containing subunit), along with CDC20.
During the Plasmodium life cycle, there are two atypical mitotic processes: one that resembles endomitosis occurs during asexual multiplication, for example, during blood stage schizogony, and another that occurs during the sexual stage - the formation of microgametes (male progenitor sex cells) in the mosquito midgut. During schizogony, genome duplication and segregation proceed via the formation of an intra-nuclear spindle without disintegration of the nuclear membrane, resulting in a multinucleated syncytium called a schizont. In microgametogenesis, exposure of the male gametocyte to mosquito midgut factors results in ‘activation’ of the microgametocyte, which undergoes three rounds of rapid genome duplication from haploid to octaploid, followed by simultaneous chromatin condensation and nuclear budding. Each condensed haploid nucleus and associated MTOC, together with a basal body, axoneme and flagellum, is incorporated into the microgamete, which egresses from the main cellular body in a process termed exflagellation.

Phenotype
APC3-GFP expression in activated gametocytes (Western blot analysis).
See also mutant RMgm-4429.

Additional information
The mutant has been used in immunoprecipitation experiments with APC3-GFP

Other mutants
See also mutant RMgm-4429 and RMgm-4430