AUTHOR=Yogavel Manickam , Chhibber-Goel Jyoti , Jamwal Abhishek , Gupta Swati , Sharma Amit 

TITLE=Engagement Rules That Underpin DBL-DARC Interactions for Ingress of Plasmodium knowlesi and Plasmodium vivax Into Human Erythrocytes

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2018.00078

DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2018.00078

ISSN=2296-889X

ABSTRACT=<p>Malaria parasite erythrocytic stages comprise of repeated bursts of parasites via cyclical invasion of host erythrocytes using dedicated receptor-ligand interactions. A family of erythrocyte-binding proteins from <italic>Plasmodium knowlesi</italic> (<italic>Pk</italic>) and <italic>Plasmodium vivax</italic> (<italic>Pv</italic>) attach to human Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) via their Duffy binding-like domains (DBLs) for invasion. Here we provide a novel, testable and overarching interaction model that rationalizes even contradictory pieces of evidence that have so far existed in the literature on <italic>Pk</italic>/<italic>Pv</italic>-DBL/DARC binding determinants. We further address the conundrum of how parasite-encoded <italic>Pk</italic>/<italic>Pv</italic>-DBLs recognize human DARC and collate evidence for two distinct DARC integration sites on <italic>Pk</italic>/<italic>Pv</italic>-DBLs.</p>