RPL22

In Toxoplasma gondii, RPL22 is a large ribosomal subunit protein whose expression is coupled to ribosome biogenesis: conditional knockdown of the small subunit protein RPS13 causes RPL22 protein levels to decline, though more slowly than RPS13 itself, linking RPL22 abundance to RPS13-dependent translational activity and ribosome assembly (PMID:21124925). Beyond this coupling observation (PMID:21124925), no further mechanistic detail on RPL22 has been characterized in the available corpus.

1. 2010 Medium

   It was unknown whether RPL22 abundance in T. gondii is tied to overall ribosome biogenesis; depleting the small subunit protein RPS13 showed RPL22 levels fall in parallel but more slowly, establishing that RPL22 expression is coupled to RPS13-dependent ribosomal biogenesis.

   Evidence Conditional TetR/ATc knockdown of rps13 with Myc-tagged RPL22 expression and protein quantitation in T. gondii

   PMID:21124925

   Open questions at the time

   • RPL22 was a secondary observation in an RPS13-focused study; its own function was not directly interrogated
   • No direct knockdown or knockout of RPL22 to define its role in ribosome assembly or parasite proliferation
   • No structural, localization, or binding-partner data for RPL22

• The direct molecular function of RPL22, its position within the large ribosomal subunit, and any extra-ribosomal roles remain uncharacterized in the available corpus.
• No direct loss-of-function study of RPL22 itself
• No structural or interaction data
• No evidence for functions beyond coupling to ribosome biogenesis