Metabolite transport pathways of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, are an important area for study in order to further the understanding of the parasite's biology. Identification and characterisation of the transporters involved in these pathways may also provide potential novel drug targets or drug delivery mechanisms. This is especially valuable as chemotherapy remains one of the main management strategies in the fight against malaria and the usefulness 0 f the current range 0 f antimalarial drugs is seriously threatened by the emergence and spread of resistance . .' In this thesis the Xenopus laevis oocyte heterologous expression system was used to functionally characterise a gene-specific cDNA library of 48 putative membrane proteins and the previously annotated putative amino acid transporter PFF1430c for the uptake of several amino acids. This screening failed to identify any definite amino acid transport by the cDNA library or PFF1430c, however this could have been due to the fact that uptake of a relatively narrow range of amino acids was tested and these were used at concentrations lower than found physiologically. Inherent issues with the X laevis expression system may also have been an issue, including the expression of endogenous transporters for the substrates being investigated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590055 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Beveridge, Susan Elizabeth |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds