food vacuole

GO:0020020 · Membrane organelle · Membrane bounded organelle · Proposed

A vacuole within a parasite used for digestion of the host cell cytoplasm. [GO:0020020]

Synonyms: digestive vacuole

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
food vacuole membrane	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)				The acidic organelle-bounding membrane that separates the digestive lumen from the parasite cytosol and carries digestive-vacuole transporters. `DOI:10.1083/jcb.113.5.1033` Cowman et al. 1991 localized a Plasmodium falciparum P-glycoprotein homologue to the digestive vacuole. `DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182` Wiser 2024 reviewed the digestive vacuole as an acidic lysosome-like organelle of malaria parasites.

NCBITaxon:5833 Plasmodium falciparum — COMMON: The food vacuole is directly evidenced in Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage parasites; no broader Plasmodium or Apicomplexa scope is asserted in this first record. [DOI:10.1002/prca.200700112]

NCBITaxon:5833 Plasmodium falciparum — Human malaria parasite whose food-vacuole fraction was isolated and profiled by proteomics. [DOI:10.1002/prca.200700112]

hemoglobin catabolism — The acidic food vacuole receives host hemoglobin and houses proteolytic digestion of that cargo during Plasmodium intraerythrocytic growth.
- DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182 Wiser 2024 reviewed the malaria digestive vacuole as the acidic lysosome-like site of host hemoglobin digestion.
- DOI:10.1002/prca.200700112 Lamarque et al. 2008 isolated Plasmodium falciparum food vacuoles for proteomic analysis.
heme detoxification — Heme released by hemoglobin proteolysis is converted into hemozoin crystals inside the digestive vacuole.
- DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182 Wiser 2024 reviewed hemozoin formation as the food-vacuole route for detoxifying heme released from digested hemoglobin.

Host hemoglobin is delivered to the Plasmodium food vacuole, proteolysis releases heme, and the vacuole converts free heme into crystalline hemozoin.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
food vacuole	digests	host hemoglobin	`DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182` Wiser 2024 reviewed host hemoglobin proteolysis in the malaria digestive vacuole.
host hemoglobin	releases	free heme	`DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182` Wiser 2024 reviewed heme release downstream of hemoglobin digestion.
free heme	crystallizes into	hemozoin	`DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182` Wiser 2024 reviewed hemozoin formation inside the digestive vacuole.

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact component groundings for Plasmodium food vacuole proteases, proton pumps and solute transporters. This first record models the digestive-vacuole membrane as an aggregate. Follow-up curation should split experimentally localized Plasmodium vacuolar hydrolases, PfCRT, Pgh1 and acidification machinery only where exact source-neutral families or species-specific UniProt examples can be verified.

GO:0020020 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for food vacuole, with digestive vacuole as an exact synonym.
DOI:10.1002/prca.200700112 Lamarque et al. 2008, Food vacuole proteome of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, Proteomics Clinical Applications.
DOI:10.3390/pathogens13030182 Wiser 2024, The Digestive Vacuole of the Malaria Parasite: A Specialized Lysosome, Pathogens.
DOI:10.1083/jcb.113.5.1033 Cowman et al. 1991, A P-glycoprotein homologue of Plasmodium falciparum is localized on the digestive vacuole, Journal of Cell Biology.

2026-09-10T14:02:08Z claude · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-10T14:02:43Z claude · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added the digestive vacuole synonym, a reviewed-label-only food vacuole membrane component, Plasmodium falciparum scope, hemoglobin catabolism and heme detoxification functions, record evidence, a nonmechanistic hemozoin-formation graph, and a vacuolar enzyme/transporter grounding TODO.
2026-09-10T14:03:02Z claude · REMOVE_UNVERIFIED_GROUNDING — Removed an unverified ChEBI grounding from the free heme graph node; exact ChEBI groundings require an authority lookup.
2026-09-10T14:10:10Z claude · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Addressed PR #377 review issues #378 and #379 by narrowing the GO-sourced definition to the GO-level food-vacuole claim and removing a Cowman-backed membrane-localization statement from the Lamarque-backed Plasmodium falciparum canonical example.