Affinage · Plasmodium

DHHC1

PF3D7_0303400 · palmitoyltransferase DHHC1

Annotated
2026-09-07
3 papers in source corpus 3 papers cited in narrative 3 extracted findings

Mechanistic narrative

Synthesis pass · prose summary of the discoveries below

PF3D7_0303400 (DHHC1) is a DHHC-family palmitoyl acyltransferase of Plasmodium falciparum that resides exclusively in the inner membrane complex (IMC) during schizogony, where it co-distributes with the dual-acylated IMC proteins PfISP1 and PfISP3, implicating it in the palmitoylation-dependent recruitment of proteins to the IMC (PMID:25425642). Beyond this IMC localization and co-distribution, no direct enzymatic reconstitution, substrate assignment, or loss-of-function phenotype for PF3D7_0303400 has been characterized in the available corpus; genome-wide DHHC-family analyses catalogue it as a family member but attribute the invasion/rhoptry-positioning essential functions to a distinct sibling (DHHC7), not to DHHC1 (PMID:23638681).

Mechanistic history

Synthesis pass · year-by-year structured walk · 2 steps
  1. 2014 Medium

    To place a specific parasite palmitoyltransferase within a defined organelle, imaging established that PF3D7_0303400 localizes exclusively to the IMC alongside dual-acylated markers, framing it as the candidate enzyme for IMC protein acylation.

    Evidence Subcellular localization by imaging/fractionation with co-distribution against IMC markers PfISP1/PfISP3 and phylogenetic analysis in P. falciparum

    PMID:25425642

    Open questions at the time
    • No in vitro or in vivo demonstration of palmitoyltransferase catalytic activity by PF3D7_0303400
    • No identified physiological palmitoylation substrate
    • No loss-of-function or knockout phenotype reported
  2. 2013 Low

    A genome-wide survey of apicomplexan DHHC-CRD enzymes addressed which family members are essential, but resolved this only for siblings (e.g. DHHC7 for rhoptry positioning), leaving PF3D7_0303400 catalogued without a dedicated functional test.

    Evidence Global repertoire and essentiality analysis of DHHC-CRD PATs in P. berghei and T. gondii; PF3D7_0303400 listed only as a family member

    PMID:23638681

    Open questions at the time
    • No experiment in this study targeted PF3D7_0303400 itself; essentiality was assessed for other family members
    • Essentiality and organellar targeting of DHHC1 specifically remain undetermined

Open questions

Synthesis pass · forward-looking unresolved questions
  • Whether PF3D7_0303400 is catalytically active, which IMC proteins it palmitoylates, and whether its function is essential for schizogony or invasion remain unresolved.
  • No enzymatic reconstitution establishing DHHC1 acyltransferase activity
  • No direct substrate identification linking DHHC1 to PfISP1/PfISP3 acylation
  • No genetic loss-of-function phenotype for PF3D7_0303400

Mechanism profile

Synthesis pass · controlled-vocabulary classification
Partners
PFISP1 (CO-DISTRIBUTES AT THE IMC) [#0]PFISP3 (CO-DISTRIBUTES AT THE IMC) [#0]

Evidence

Reading pass · 3 per-paper findings extracted from the source corpus
Year Finding Method Journal Conf PMIDs
2014 PfDHHC1 (PF3D7_0303400) is exclusively localized to the inner membrane complex (IMC) of P. falciparum, where it co-distributes with dual-acylated IMC-localized proteins PfISP1 and PfISP3 during schizogony, identifying it as an IMC-resident palmitoyl acyltransferase (PAT) involved in recruiting palmitoylated proteins to the IMC. Subcellular localization by direct imaging/fractionation; phylogenetic analysis; identification of co-distribution with IMC marker proteins; probing sequence requirements for IMC membrane recruitment The Journal of biological chemistry Medium 25425642
2013 Genome-wide analysis of DHHC-CRD palmitoyl acyltransferases in Plasmodium berghei and Toxoplasma gondii established that some apicomplexan-specific DHHC enzymes are essential for parasite growth and are targeted to apicomplexan-specific organelles; the family member DHHC7 (not DHHC1/PF3D7_0303400) was identified as essential for invasion via rhoptry positioning. PF3D7_0303400 is catalogued as a member of this PAT family but no specific functional experiment was performed on it in this study. Global repertoire analysis of DHHC-CRD PATs; essentiality assessment in P. berghei; localization studies Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) Low 23638681
2005 A P. falciparum protein containing a DHHC domain (described as a Golgi-localized protein with ankyrin domains expressed in late schizonts) was characterized; its Golgi localization and late-schizont expression timing suggest a role in sorting proteins to apical organelles. NOTE: this paper describes a DHHC-domain-containing protein localized to the Golgi, which may or may not correspond to PF3D7_0303400; the abstract does not provide a gene identifier confirming identity with PF3D7_0303400. Subcellular localization (Golgi); expression timing analysis in asexual stages Experimental parasitology Low 15882865

Source papers

Stage 0 corpus · 3 papers · ranked by NIH iCite citations
Year Title Journal Citations PMID
2013 Global analysis of apicomplexan protein S-acyl transferases reveals an enzyme essential for invasion. Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) 62 23638681
2014 The role of palmitoylation for protein recruitment to the inner membrane complex of the malaria parasite. The Journal of biological chemistry 40 25425642
2005 Plasmodium falciparum: characterization of a late asexual stage golgi protein containing both ankyrin and DHHC domains. Experimental parasitology 12 15882865