The apicoplast is the relict of a plastid organelle found in several disease-causing apicomplexan parasites such as Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii. In these organisms, the organelle has lost its photosynthetic capability but harbours several fitness-conferring or essential metabolic pathways. Although maintaining the apicoplast and fuelling the metabolic pathways within requires the challenging constant import and export of numerous metabolites across its four membranes, only few apicoplast transporters have been identified to date, most of which are orphan transporters. Here we review the roles of metabolic pathways within the apicoplast and what is currently known about the few identified apicoplast metabolite transporters. We discuss what metabolites must get in and out of the apicoplast, the many transporters that are yet to be discovered, and what role these might play in parasite metabolism and as putative drug targets.

顶质体是在几种引起疾病的顶复体寄生虫（如疟原虫）中发现的质体细胞器的残余物。和弓形虫. 在这些生物体中，细胞器已经失去了光合作用能力，但拥有几种赋予健康的或必需的代谢途径。尽管维持顶端质体并为其内的代谢途径提供燃料需要通过其四个膜进行大量代谢物的不断输入和输出，但迄今为止仅鉴定了少数顶端质体转运蛋白，其中大多数是孤儿转运蛋白。在这里，我们回顾了顶质体中代谢途径的作用以及目前已知的少数已鉴定的顶质体代谢物转运蛋白。我们讨论了哪些代谢物必须进出顶质体、许多尚未发现的转运蛋白，以及它们在寄生虫代谢和作为推定的药物靶标中可能发挥的作用。