Disease Relevance
Several major human diseases are caused by the obligate intracellular protozoan parasites in the phylum Apicomplexa. The apicoplast organelle in these organisms is believed to have come from an endosymbiotic event in which an ancestral protozoan engulfed an algal cell. These apicoplasts contain plant-like FNRs that the protozoan uses to generate reduced ferredoxin, which is then used as a reductant in essential biosynthetic pathways. FNRs from two major parasites affecting humans, Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria, and Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis, have been sequenced. Since humans do not have a homologous protein, these enzymes are possible new targets for drug therapies against these diseases.
Read more about this topic: Ferredoxin-NADP+ Reductase
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