Abstract
The malaria parasite Plasmodium and other apicomplexans such as Toxoplasma evolved from photosynthetic organisms and contain an essential, remnant plastid termed the apicoplast. Transcription of the apicoplast genome is polycistronic with extensive RNA processing. Yet little is known about the mechanism of apicoplast RNA processing. In plants, chloroplast RNA processing is controlled by multiple pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins. Here, we identify the single apicoplast PPR protein, PPR1. We show that the protein is essential and that it binds to RNA motifs corresponding with previously characterized processing sites. Additionally, PPR1 shields RNA transcripts from ribonuclease degradation. This is the first characterization of a PPR protein from a nonphotosynthetic plastid.
Highlights
The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and related apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma evolved from photosynthetic organisms
We present the characterization of the single apicoplast pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR1) protein, increasing our understanding of essential events in apicoplast RNA biology
We show that it is targeted to the apicoplast in both Plasmodium and Toxoplasma
Summary
The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and related apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma evolved from photosynthetic organisms They contain a remnant plastid known as an apicoplast (Gardner, Williamson, & Wilson, 1991; Howe, 1992; McFadden, Reith, Munholland, & Lang‐Unnasch, 1996). PPR proteins are involved in all aspects of organelle RNA biology, including splicing, editing, transcript stability, and translation They are sequence‐specific RNA‐binding proteins, containing 2–30 tandem repeats, with each repeat comprising a 35‐amino acid motif that folds into a helix‐turn‐helix structure (Manna, 2015; Prikryl, Rojas, Schuster, & Barkan, 2011). This is the first characterization of a PPR protein from a nonphotosynthetic chloroplast and represents a leap forward in our understanding of essential events in apicoplast RNA biology
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