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Three-Dimensional Ultrastructure of the Ring Stage of Plasmodium falciparum: Evidence for Export Pathways

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2004

Lawrence Howard Bannister ,
John Mervyn Hopkins ,
Gabriele Margos ,
Anton Richard Dluzewski  and
Graham Howard Mitchell
Lawrence Howard Bannister
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Cell and Human Biology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Biomedical Science, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1UL, UK
John Mervyn Hopkins
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Cell and Human Biology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Biomedical Science, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1UL, UK Department of Immunobiology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK
Gabriele Margos
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Cell and Human Biology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Biomedical Science, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1UL, UK Department of Immunobiology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK
Anton Richard Dluzewski
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Cell and Human Biology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Biomedical Science, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1UL, UK Department of Immunobiology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK
Graham Howard Mitchell
Affiliation:
Department of Immunobiology, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK
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Abstract

The three-dimensional structure of the Plasmodium falciparum ring stage has been explored by reconstruction from serial sections and stereoscopic examination of tilted sections. The ring-like light microscopic appearance is related to the shape and contents of the biconcave discoidal parasite at this stage, its thick perimeter containing most of the ribosomes and its thin center containing smooth membrane organelles. The shapes of rings vary between flat and curved cuplike forms. The rough endoplasmic reticulum is a branched network continuous with the nuclear envelope. Evidence for a simple Golgi complex is seen in the presence on the outer nuclear envelope of a locus of coated vesicle budding associated with a single membranous cisterna or cluster of smooth vesicles. In middle and late stage rings this complex migrates along an extension of the nuclear envelope continuous with the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Evidence is also presented for a mechanism of exporting membrane from the parasite into the parasitophorous vacuole membrane and beyond into the red blood cell, by means of double-membraned vesicle-based exocytosis.

Keywords

Plasmodium falciparumring stagetransmission electron microscopythree-dimensionalGolgi
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 10 , Issue 5 , October 2004 , pp. 551 - 562
Copyright
© 2004 Microscopy Society of America

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