Molecular mechanism of organellar replication in Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium harbours an essential non-photosynthetic plastid
called the apicoplast. Just like mitochondria, apicoplast has its
own genome and accurate duplication of the apicoplast DNA is
essential for Plasmodium survival. Apicoplast replication is
performed by a dedicated replication machinery (replisome),
which is divergent from both the eukaryotic and bacterial
replisomes. At present we do not know how the apicoplast
replisome functions. In this inter-disciplinary project we will use
single particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) along with
enzyme kinetics and single molecule biophysics to develop the
first comprehensive picture of how apicoplast genome
duplication occurs.
This work will have a major impact on our understanding of
replication, a fundamental cellular process, and will also inform
downstream research geared towards antimalarial drug
development for combating multi-drug resistant Plasmodium
infection