The PTEX pore component EXP2 is important for intrahepatic development during the Plasmodium liver stage

During vertebrate infection, obligate intracellular malaria parasites develop within a parasitophorous vacuole which constitutes the interface between the parasite and its hepatocyte or erythrocyte host cells. To transcend this barrier, Plasmodium spp. utilize a dual-function pore formed by EXP2 for nutrient transport and, in the context of the PTEX translocon, effector protein export across the vacuole membrane. While critical to blood stage survival, less is known about EXP2/PTEX function in the liver stage, although major differences in the export mechanism are indicated by absence of the PTEX unfoldase HSP101 in the intrahepatic vacuole. Here, we employed the glucosamine-activated glmS ribozyme to study the role of EXP2 during Plasmodium berghei liver stage development in hepatoma cells. Insertion of the glmS sequence into the exp2 3UTR enabled glucosamine-dependent depletion of EXP2 after hepatocyte invasion, allowing separation of EXP2 function during intrahepatic development from a recently reported role in hepatocyte invasion. Post-invasion EXP2 knockdown reduced parasite size and largely abolished expression of the mid to late liver stage marker LISP2. As an orthogonal approach to monitor development, EXP2-glmS parasites and controls were engineered to express nanoluciferase. Activation of glmS after invasion substantially decreased luminescence in hepatoma monolayers and in culture supernatants at later time points corresponding with merosome detachment that marks the culmination of liver stage development. Collectively, our findings extend the utility of the glmS ribozyme to study protein function in the liver stage and reveal EXP2 is important for intrahepatic parasite development, indicating PTEX components also function at the hepatocyte-parasite interface.