BBB seminar: Dominique Soldati-Favre

Myosin-dependent cell-cell communication controls synchronicity of division in acute and chronic stages of Toxoplasma gondii

Dominique Soldati-Favre
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that possesses a repertoire of 11 myosins. Three class XIV motors participate in motility, invasion and egress whereas the class XXII myosin F is implicated in organelles positioning and inheritance of the plastid-like organelle termed apicoplast. We recently identified myosin J and centrin 2 as essential for parasite posterior constriction while myosin J establishes an intravacuolar cell-cell communication that ensures synchronized division. Remarkably the connectivity between intravacuolar parasites contributes to the previously described delayed death phenotype resulting from loss of the apicoplast. The connection between parasites is rapidly lost in activated macrophages and gradually during bradyzoite differentiation resulting in asynchronized, slow division bradyzoites in the cysts.

Chairperson: Inari Kursula <inari.kursula@uib.no>, Department of Biomedicine