Previous studies in Leishmania mexicana have identified the cytoskeletal protein KHARON as being important for both flagellar trafficking of the glucose transporter GT1 and for successful cytokinesis and survival of infectious amastigote forms inside mammalian macrophages. KHARON is located in three distinct regions of the cytoskeleton: the base of the flagellum, the subpellicular microtubules, and the mitotic spindle. To deconvolve the different functions for KHARON, we have identified two partner proteins, KHAP1 and KHAP2, which associate with KHARON. KHAP1 is located only in the subpellicular microtubules, whereas KHAP2 is located at the subpellicular microtubules and the base of the flagellum. Both KHAP1 and KHAP2 null mutants are unable to execute cytokinesis but are able to traffic GT1 to the flagellum. These results confirm that KHARON assembles into distinct functional complexes and that the subpellicular complex is essential for cytokinesis and viability of disease-causing amastigotes but not for flagellar membrane trafficking.

中文翻译：

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细胞骨架蛋白复合物对于墨西哥利什曼原虫细胞内无鞭毛体的分裂至关重要。

先前在墨西哥利什曼原虫中的研究已经确定细胞骨架蛋白 KHARON 对于葡萄糖转运蛋白 GT1 的鞭毛运输以及哺乳动物巨噬细胞内感染性无鞭毛体形式的成功胞质分裂和存活都很重要。KHARON 位于细胞骨架的三个不同区域：鞭毛底部、膜下微管和有丝分裂纺锤体。为了对 KHARON 的不同功能进行解卷积，我们确定了两个伙伴蛋白 KHAP1 和 KHAP2，它们与 KHARON 相关联。KHAP1 仅位于膜下微管中，而 KHAP2 位于膜下微管和鞭毛基部。KHAP1 和 KHAP2 无效突变体都无法执行胞质分裂，但能够将 GT1 运输到鞭毛。