A divergent Plasmodium NEK4 acts as a key regulator driving the early events of meiosis - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #malaria
- #cell_biology
- #meiosis
- Plasmodium NEK4 is identified as a key regulator that couples meiotic initiation with zygote morphogenesis in malaria parasites.
- NEK4 localizes at the microtubule-organizing center and apical polar complex, preceding microtubule assembly and enabling MTOC-associated nuclear migration.
- Deletion of Pbnek4 leads to developmental arrest, blocking microtubule formation, chromatin condensation, nuclear migration, and cell polarity establishment.
- Transcriptomic and phosphoproteomic analyses show NEK4 absence disrupts regulatory networks for meiosis and cytoskeletal organization, affecting expression and phosphorylation of key proteins like HOP1, REC8, and AP2-O.