The claudin-like apicomplexan microneme protein is required for gliding motility and infectivity of Plasmodium sporozoites

Abstract Invasion of host cells by apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma and Plasmodium spp requires the sequential secretion of the parasite apical organelles, the micronemes and the rhoptries. The claudin-like apicomplexan microneme protein (CLAMP) is a conserved protein that plays an essential role during invasion in Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites and Plasmodium falciparum merozoites. CLAMP is also expressed in Plasmodium sporozoites, the mosquito-transmitted forms of the malaria parasite, but its role in this stage is still unknown. CLAMP is essential for Plasmodium blood stage growth and is refractory to conventional gene deletion. To circumvent this obstacle and study the function of CLAMP in sporozoites, we used a conditional genome editing strategy based on the dimerisable Cre recombinase in the rodent malaria model parasite P. berghei . We successfully deleted clamp gene in P. berghei transmission stages and analyzed the functional consequences on sporozoite infectivity. In mosquitoes, sporozoite development and egress from oocysts was not affected in conditional mutants. However, invasion of the mosquito salivary glands was dramatically reduced upon deletion of clamp gene. In addition, CLAMP-deficient sporozoites were impaired in cell traversal and productive invasion of mammalian hepatocytes. This severe phenotype was associated with major defects in gliding motility and with reduced shedding of the sporozoite adhesin TRAP. These results demonstrate that CLAMP is essential across invasive stages of the malaria parasite, and strongly suggest that the protein acts upstream of host cell invasion, possibly by regulating the secretion or function of adhesins in Plasmodium sporozoites. Author summary Plasmodium parasites, the causative agents of malaria, are transmitted during the bite of an infected mosquito. Infectious parasite stages known as sporozoites are released from the insect salivary glands and injected into the host skin. Sporozoites rapidly migrate to the host liver, invade hepatocytes and differentiate into the next invasive forms, the merozoites, which invade and replicate inside red blood cells. Sporozoite motility and host cell invasion rely on the secretion of apical organelles called micronemes and rhoptries. Here we characterize the function of a microneme protein expressed both in merozoites and sporozoites, the claudin-like protein CLAMP. We used a conditional genome editing strategy in a rodent malaria model to generate CLAMP-deficient sporozoites. In the absence of CLAMP, sporozoites failed to invade mosquito salivary glands and mammalian hepatocytes, and showed defects in gliding motility and microneme secretion. Our data establish that CLAMP plays an essential role across Plasmodium invasive stages, and might represent a potential target for transmission-blocking antimalarial strategies.