Article of Significant Interest Selected from This Issue by the Editors

Biochemical and Functional Characterization of Toxoplasma gondii Formin 3

Two well-conserved formins across the phylum Apicomplexa have been implicated as actin nucleators contributing to gliding motility, host cell invasion, and egress events. A third formin restricted to the coccidians binds to and nucleates actin at nanomolar concentrations. Toxoplasma formin 3 is targeted to three different locations, assisting myosin motors that remain to be characterized. Daher et al. (p. 343–352) establish that formin 3 is dispensable in tachyzoites, suggesting a potential functional redundancy with other formins or a critical role in other life stages. Overexpression of various domains of formin 3 identified the regions responsible for the distinct localizations and highlighted the importance of the C-terminal part in controlling its activity.