Plasmodium malaria parasites use erythrocyte-binding-like (EBL) ligands to invade erythrocytes in their vertebrate host. EBLs are released from micronemes, which are secretory organelles located at the merozoite apical end and bind to erythrocyte surface receptors. Because of their essential nature, EBLs have been studied as vaccine candidates, such as the Plasmodium vivax Duffy binding protein. Previously, we showed through using the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii that a single amino acid substitution within the EBL C-terminal Cys-rich domain (region 6) caused mislocalization of this molecule and resulted in alteration of the infection course and virulence between the non-lethal 17X and lethal 17XL strains. In the present study, we generated a panel of transgenic P. yoelii lines in which seven of the eight conserved Cys residues in EBL region 6 were independently substituted to Ala residues to observe the consequence of these substitutions with respect to EBL localization, the infection course, and virulence. Five out of seven transgenic lines showed EBL mislocalizations and higher parasitemias. Among them, three showed increased virulence, whereas the other two did not kill the infected mice. The remaining two transgenic lines showed low parasitemias similar to their parental 17X strain, and their EBL localizations did not change. The results indicate the importance of Cys residues in EBL region 6 for EBL localization, parasite infection course, and virulence and suggest an association between EBL localization and the parasite infection course.
Keywords: erythrocyte; invasion; ligand; malaria; trafficking.