Trophozoites of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum hydrolyze erythrocyte hemoglobin in an acidic food vacuole to provide amino acids for parasite protein synthesis. Cysteine protease inhibitors block hemoglobin degradation, indicating that a cysteine protease plays a key role in this process. A principal trophozoite cysteine protease was purified by affinity chromatography. Sequence analysis indicated that the protease is encoded by a previously unidentified gene, falcipain-2. Falcipain-2 was predominantly expressed in trophozoites, was concentrated in food vacuoles, and was responsible for at least 93% of trophozoite soluble cysteine protease activity. A construct encoding mature falcipain-2 and a small portion of the prodomain was expressed in Escherichia coli and refolded to active enzyme. Specificity for the hydrolysis of peptide substrates by native and recombinant falcipain-2 was very similar, and optimal at acid pH in a reducing environment. Under physiological conditions (pH 5.5, 1 mM glutathione), falcipain-2 hydrolyzed both native hemoglobin and denatured globin. Our results suggest that falcipain-2 can initiate cleavage of native hemoglobin in the P. falciparum food vacuole, that, following initial cleavages, the protease plays a key role in rapidly hydrolyzing globin fragments, and that a drug discovery effort targeted at this protease is appropriate.

In the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, erythrocytic trophozoites hydrolyse haemoglobin to provide amino acids for parasite protein synthesis. Cysteine protease inhibitors block parasite haemoglobin hydrolysis and development, indicating that cysteine proteases are required for these processes. Three papain-family cysteine protease sequences have been identified in the P. falciparum genome, but the specific roles of their gene products and other plasmodial proteases in haemoglobin hydrolysis are uncertain. Falcipain-2 was recently identified as a principal trophozoite cysteine protease and potential drug target. The present study characterizes the related P. falciparum cysteine protease falcipain-3. As is the case with falcipain-2, falcipain-3 is expressed by trophozoites and appears to be located within the food vacuole, the site of haemoglobin hydrolysis. Both proteases require a reducing environment and acidic pH for optimal activity, and both prefer peptide substrates with leucine at the P(2) position. The proteases differ, however, in that falcipain-3 undergoes efficient processing to an active form only at acidic pH, is more active and stable at acidic pH, and has much lower specific activity against typical papain-family peptide substrates, but has greater activity against native haemoglobin. Thus falcipain-3 is a second P. falciparum haemoglobinase that is particularly suited for the hydrolysis of native haemoglobin in the acidic food vacuole. The redundancy of cysteine proteases may offer optimized hydrolysis of both native haemoglobin and globin peptides. Consideration of both proteases will be necessary to evaluate cysteine protease inhibitors as antimalarial drugs.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among job involvement, organizational commitment, team commitment and professional commitment and to explore generational differences for these variables. Design/methodology/approach – It used structured questionnaire survey approach for which data were collected from 477 full-time employees of 13 organizations from diverse sectors in India. Respondents were categorized into four generational cohorts following the classification reported in Robbins et al. (2011). Findings – The findings of the study indicated that professional commitment is negatively related with job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, and team commitment. Job involvement, affective and normative organizational commitment, and team commitment were positively correlated. Differences were observed among Generation Y, Generation X, Liberals, and Socialist for job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, professional commitment, and team commitment. Generation Y, for example, was found high in professional commitment, while Socialist were found higher on affective organizational commitment compared to other generations. Practical implications – Findings suggests that there is a decrease in job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, and increase in professional commitment in young generations. Organizations need to take consideration this while designing the HR policies for employees’ engagement. Originality/value – The contribution of the study lies in examining the employees’ attitude to different dimensions of work life and differences among Indian generations.