Entamoeba histolytica: focal adhesion kinase and Erk phosphorylation are altered in the cytoskeleton mutant BG-3.

The Entamoeba histolytica mutant BG-3 has several altered cytoskeletal properties, including the distribution of actin and certain surface characteristics such as osmolarity and electrophoretic mobility. By Western blot analysis and assays for cell adhesion to collagen, we demonstrate that mutant BG-3 shows an increase in the phosphorylation levels of protein kinases that participate in proliferation, adhesion and migration, such as focal adhesion kinase and MAP kinase (Erk2), and that it has also altered its capacity of binding to collagen type I. These results indicate that E. histolytica cytoskeleton integrity plays an important role in adhesion and thus invasion of the host.