Mutant/mutation
The mutant expresses a C-terminal mCherry-tagged version of LINUP (liver stage nuclear protein)

Published in: bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.13.519845

Protein (function) 
PY17X_1465200, is a single exon gene encoding a 746 amino acid protein and is conserved among Plasmodium species. The overall amino acid identity between the P. yoelii, P. falciparum and P. vivax syntenic orthologs was 40%, whilst amino acid similarity was 60%. Identity in a 122 amino acid stretch near to the N-terminus (amino acids 44-161) was 89%. In addition, comprehensive protein BLAST searches revealed that the gene has no orthologs in other Apicomplexa or any other eukaryote and is thus unique to Plasmodium. PY17X_1465200 contains a conserved N-terminal 24 amino acid nuclear localization sequence (NLS) in Py, Pf and Pv that was nearly identical in amino acid sequence among the three species.

Phenotype
Phenotype analyses of a mutant lacking expression of LINUP (RMgm-5272) showed severe liver stage attenuation (with a late liver stage growth arrest phenotype; although not complete)

Analysis of the mutant expressing a C-terminal mCherry-tagged version of LINUP showed the following: LINUPmCherry expression was only seen during mid-to-late liver stage development, which in Py has an approximate 50-hour duration. LINUPmCherry expression was not detected at 24 hours of liver stage development but was detected at both 36 and 48 hours the latter a timepoint when merozoites form during the final stages of exo-erythrocytic schizogony. LINUPmCherry localized to live stage nuclei together with parasite DNA and partially co-localized with the histone marker, histone 3 acetylated lysine 9 (H3K9) which marks areas of active gene expression.

Additional information

Other mutants