Novel structural and regulatory features of rhoptry secretory kinases in <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>

Serine/threonine kinases secreted from rhoptry organelles constitute important virulence factors of <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>. Rhoptry kinases are highly divergent and their structures and regulatory mechanism are hitherto unknown. Here, we report the X-ray crystal structures of two related pseudokinases named ROP2 and ROP8, which differ primarily in their substrate-binding site. ROP kinases contain a typical bilobate kinase fold and a novel N-terminal extension that both stabilizes the N-lobe and provides a unique means of regulation. Although ROP2 and ROP8 were catalytically inactive, they provided a template for homology modelling of the active kinase ROP18, a major virulence determinant of <i>T. gondii</i>. Autophosphorylation of key residues in the N-terminal extension resulted in ROP18 activation, which in turn phosphorylated ROP2 and ROP8. Mutagenesis and mass spectrometry experiments revealed that ROP18 was maximally activated when this phosphorylated N-terminus relieved autoinhibition resulting from extension of aliphatic side chains into the ATP-binding pocket. This novel means of regulation governs ROP kinases implicated in parasite virulence