A transporter essential for apical secretory organelles homeostasis in Toxoplasma gondii

TFP5 (formerly HAP12) in Toxoplasma gondii is predominantly Golgi-associated and its depletion disrupts microneme secretion and rhoptry morphology, linked to major lipid composition changes.

• Why it matters: Apicomplexan rhoptries and micronemes coordinate invasion, yet how lipid composition is controlled in T. gondii apical secretory organelles remains poorly understood.
• What they did: Using localization and phylogenetic analyses, the study renames HAP12 as TFP5 and examines its clustering with MFS transporter proteins; TFP5 depletion triggers secretion and organelle phenotypes plus lipidomic profiling.
• The result: Structural analyses show TFP5 is strongly similar to MFSD2-like lipid transporters, and lipidomics reveal substantial lipid composition changes after TFP5 depletion, supporting a lipid-homeostasis model for apical organelle function and virulence.