CambridgeToxoplasma invades a cell in under a minute.
It belongs to a parasite group that includes Plasmodium, which causes malaria.
The parasite reorganizes sugar-coated proteins on the host surface into cholesterol-dependent membrane patches that trigger its invasion machinery.
The host cell is “actually having its surface mixed around and remodeled by the parasite,” said Sebastian Lourido, who led the lab.
The study, in The EMBO Journal, answers only part of what triggers the parasite’s rhoptry release.
How each outlet framed it
- Phys.org
- toxoplasma reorganizes host cell proteins into cholesterol patches enabling invasion; host actively remodeled, not passively penetrated
Sources: Phys.org