TARGETING THE SECRETORY PATHWAY OF TOXOPLASMA-GONDII

Little is known about the extent of conservation in the organization o f the secretory pathway in organisms as different as prokaryotes, euka ryotes, and humans, The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii allows ea sy genetic manipulations, and numerous vectors for selection of transg enic parasites have been developed. One approach to study the molecula r mechanism of protein sorting and trafficking is the expression of fo reign proteins. Here we describe the design and application of a vecto r that targets proteins to the secretory pathway of T. gondii and yiel ds high-level expression of Escherichia coli reporter proteins, The ge neral strategies and potential problems in expressing foreign proteins in T. gondii are discussed. (C) 1997 Academic Press.