TY - JOUR
T1 - Virulence without catalysis
T2 - How can a pseudokinase affect host cell signaling?
AU - Reese, Michael L.
AU - Boyle, Jon P.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Eva LaDow and Anita Koshy for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by American Cancer Society grant 116604 (to M.L.R.) and a Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences (to J.P.B.).
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - A hallmark of the pathogenic lifestyle is the secretion of enzymes and other effectors that dysregulate host signaling. Intriguingly, the most potent virulence locus identified in the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii encodes a family of related catalytically inactive protein kinases, or pseudokinases. Toxoplasma has in its kinome among the highest percentage of pseudokinases among all sequenced organisms, and the majority of these appear to be secreted into the host cell. We posit that the pseudokinase fold represents a particularly well-suited domain for functional diversification, discuss the relevance of gene expansion at these loci, and outline potential mechanisms by which a pseudokinase might affect host signaling.
AB - A hallmark of the pathogenic lifestyle is the secretion of enzymes and other effectors that dysregulate host signaling. Intriguingly, the most potent virulence locus identified in the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii encodes a family of related catalytically inactive protein kinases, or pseudokinases. Toxoplasma has in its kinome among the highest percentage of pseudokinases among all sequenced organisms, and the majority of these appear to be secreted into the host cell. We posit that the pseudokinase fold represents a particularly well-suited domain for functional diversification, discuss the relevance of gene expansion at these loci, and outline potential mechanisms by which a pseudokinase might affect host signaling.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.pt.2011.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.pt.2011.12.004
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22257555
AN - SCOPUS:84856236887
SN - 1471-4922
VL - 28
SP - 53
EP - 57
JO - Trends in Parasitology
JF - Trends in Parasitology
IS - 2
ER -