Apicoplast-Resident Processes: Exploiting the Chink in the Armour of Parasites.

The discovery of a relict plastid, also known as an apicoplast (apicomplexan plastid), that houses housekeeping processes and metabolic pathways critical to parasites' survival has prompted increased research on identifying potent inhibitors that can impinge on apicoplast-localised processes. The apicoplast is absent in humans, yet it is proposed to originate from the eukaryote's secondary endosymbiosis of a primary symbiont. This symbiotic relationship provides a favourable microenvironment for metabolic processes such as haem biosynthesis, Fe-S cluster synthesis, isoprenoid biosynthesis, fatty acid synthesis, and housekeeping processes such as DNA replication, transcription, and translation, distinct from analogous mammalian processes.