scholarly journals Import of fructose bisphosphate aldolase into the glycosomes of Trypanosoma brucei.

1987 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 2649-2654 ◽  
Author(s):  
C E Clayton

The glycolytic enzymes of Trypanosomatids are compartmentalized within peroxisome-like microbodies called glycosomes. Fructose bisphosphate aldolase is synthesized on free polysomes and imported into glycosomes within 5 min. Peptide mapping reveals no primary structural differences between the in vivo-synthesized protein and that made in vitro from a synthetic template. However, native aldolase from glycosomes is partially protease resistant, whereas the in vitro translation product is not. Pulse-chase results indicate that aldolase in bloodstream trypanosomes has a much longer half-life than in the procyclic tsetse fly form.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mustafa Elhag ◽  
Ruaa Mohamed Alaagib ◽  
Nagla Mohamed Ahmed ◽  
Mustafa Abubaker ◽  
Esraa Musa Haroun ◽  
...  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common pathogen that is responsible for serious hospital-acquired infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and various sepsis syndromes. Also, it is a multidrug-resistant pathogen recognized for its ubiquity and its intrinsically advanced antibiotic-resistant mechanisms. It usually affects immunocompromised individuals but can also infect immunocompetent individuals. There is no vaccine against it available till now. This study predicts an effective epitope-based vaccine against fructose bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using immunoinformatics tools. The protein sequences were obtained from NCBI, and prediction tests were undertaken to analyze possible epitopes for B and T cells. Three B cell epitopes passed the antigenicity, accessibility, and hydrophilicity tests. Six MHC I epitopes were found to be promising, while four MHC II epitopes were found promising from the result set. Nineteen epitopes were shared between MHC I and II results. For the population coverage, the epitopes covered 95.62% worldwide excluding certain MHC II alleles. We recommend in vivo and in vitro studies to prove its effectiveness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline E Dewar ◽  
Aitor Casas-Sánchez ◽  
Constentin Dieme ◽  
Aline Crouzols ◽  
Lee Haines ◽  
...  

The single-celled parasite Trypanosoma brucei causes sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock and is transmitted by hematophagous tsetse flies. Lifecycle progression from mammalian bloodstream form to tsetse midgut form and, subsequently, infective salivary gland form depends on complex developmental steps and migration within different fly tissues. As the parasite colonises the glucose-poor insect midgut, its ATP production is thought to depend on activation of mitochondrial amino acid catabolism via oxidative phosphorylation. This process involves respiratory chain complexes and the F1FO-ATP synthase, and it requires protein subunits of these complexes that are encoded in the parasite's mitochondrial DNA (kinetoplast or kDNA). Here we show that a progressive loss of kDNA-encoded functions correlates with an increasingly impaired ability of T. brucei to initiate and complete its development in the tsetse. First, parasites with a mutated F1FO-ATP synthase with a reduced capacity for oxidative phosphorylation can initiate differentiation from bloodstream to insect form, but they are unable to proliferate in vitro. Unexpectedly, these cells can still colonise the tsetse midgut. However, these parasites exhibit a motility defect and are severely impaired in colonising or migrating to subsequent tsetse tissues. Second, parasites with a fully disrupted F1FO-ATP synthase complex that is completely unable to produce ATP by oxidative phosphorylation can still differentiate to the first insect stage in vitro but die within a few days and cannot establish a midgut infection in vivo. Third, mutant parasites lacking kDNA entirely can initiate differentiation but die within 24 h. Together, these three scenarios show that efficient ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation is not essential for initial colonisation of the tsetse vector, but it is required to power trypanosome migration within the fly.


1986 ◽  
Vol 234 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
N V Torres ◽  
F Mateo ◽  
E Meléndez-Hevia ◽  
H Kacser

A method for determining Control Coefficients is proposed for systems studied in vitro and applied to a model pathway. Rat liver extract, which converts glucose into glycerol 3-phosphate, was used with the addition to the incubation mixture of fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, triose-phosphate isomerase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase as ‘auxiliary’ enzymes, which leaves all the control on the first three enzymes. The flux of the metabolic pathway was recorded by assaying NADH decay. Flux Control Coefficients (CJE) of hexokinase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase and phosphofructokinase were calculated by titration of the system with increasing quantities of extraneous enzymes. It is shown that the summation property is fulfilled. The applicability of this procedure to study the control in any metabolic pathway is discussed. Possible relevance of the method to conditions in vivo and its limitations are considered.


1988 ◽  
Vol 256 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
M F Hopgood ◽  
S E Knowles ◽  
J S Bond ◽  
F J Ballard

The uptake and degradation of radiolabelled rabbit muscle fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (EC 4.1.2.13) was studied in HeLa cells microinjected by the erythrocyte ghost fusion system. Labelled aldolase was progressively modified by treatment with GSSG or N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) before microinjection to determine whether these agents, which inactivate and destabilize the enzyme in vitro, affect the half-life of the enzyme in vivo. Increasing exposure of aldolase to GSSG or NEM before microinjection increased the extent of aldolase transfer into the HeLa cells and decreased the proportion of the protein that could be extracted from the cells after water lysis. Some degradation of the GSSG- and NEM-inactivated aldolases was observed in the ghosts before microinjection; thus a family of radiolabelled proteins was microinjected in these experiments. In spite of the above differences, the 40 kDa subunit of each aldolase form was degraded with a half-life of 30 h in the HeLa cells. In contrast, the progressively modified forms of aldolase were increasingly susceptible to proteolytic action in vitro by chymotrypsin or by cathepsin B and in ghosts. These studies indicate that the rate of aldolase degradation in cells is not determined by attack by cellular proteinases that recognize vulnerable protein substrates; the results are most easily explained by a random autophagic process involving the lysosomal system.


1987 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bennick

Considerable advances have been made in the genetics of salivary proline-rich proteins (PRP). The genes for acidic, basic, and glycosylated PRP have been cloned. They code for precursor proteins that all have an acidic N-terminal followed by proline-rich repeat sequences. Structural studies on secreted proteins have demonstrated that not only acidic but also some basic PRPs have this general structure. It is possible that mRNA for different PRP may have originated from a single gene by differential mRNA splicing, but post-translational cleavages of the primary translation product apparently also occur. In vitro translation of salivary gland mRNA results in a single precursor protein for acidic PRP. Such in vitro translated protein can be cleaved by salivary kallikrein, giving rise to two commonly secreted acidic PRPs, and kallikrein or kallikrein-like enzymes may be responsible for other post-translational cleavages of PRPs. Acidic as well as some basic PRPs are phosphorylated. A protein kinase has been demonstrated in salivary glands which phosphorylates the PRPs and other secreted salivary proteins in a cAMP and Ca2+-calmodulinindependent manner. Knowledge of the conformation of PRPs is limited. There is no conclusive evidence of polyproline-like structure in the proline-rich part of PRPs. Ca2+ binding studies on acidic PRPs indicate that there is interaction between the Ca2+ binding N-terminal end and the proline-rich C-terminal part. This interaction is relieved by modification of arginine side-chains. 1H, 32P, and 43Ca NMR studies have further elucidated the conformation of acidic PRPs in solution. Present evidence shows that salivary PRPs constitute a unique superfamily of proteins which pose a number of interesting questions concerning gene structure, pre- and post-translational modifications, and protein conformation.


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 2567-2572 ◽  
Author(s):  
J R Sufrin ◽  
D Rattendi ◽  
A J Spiess ◽  
S Lane ◽  
C J Marasco ◽  
...  

Fifteen purine nucleosides and their O-acetylated ester derivatives were examined for in vitro antitrypanosomal activity against the LAB 110 EATRO isolate of Trypanosoma brucei brucei and two clinical isolates of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. Initial comparisons of activity were made for the LAB 110 EATRO isolate. Three nucleoside analogs exhibited no significant activity (50% inhibitory concentrations [IC50s] of > 100 microM), whether they were O acetylated or unacetylated; three nucleosides showed almost equal activity (IC50s of < 5 microM) for the parent compound and the O-acetylated derivative; nine nucleosides showed significantly improved activity (> or = 3-fold) upon O acetylation; of these nine analogs, six displayed activity at least 10-fold greater than that of their parent nucleosides. The most significant results were those for four apparently inactive compounds which, upon O acetylation, displayed IC50s of < or = 25 microM. When the series of compounds was tested against T. brucei rhodesiense isolates (KETRI 243 and KETRI 269), their antitrypanosomal effects were comparable to those observed for the EATRO 110 strain. Thus, our studies of purine nucleosides have determined that O acetylation consistently improved their in vitro antitrypanosomal activity. This observed phenomenon was independent of their cellular enzyme targets (i.e., S-adenosylmethionine, polyamine, or purine salvage pathways). On the basis of our results, the routine preparation of O-acetylated purine nucleosides for in vitro screening of antitrypanosomal activity is recommended, since O acetylation transformed several inactive nucleosides into compounds with significant activity, presumably by improving uptake characteristics. O-acetylated purine nucleosides may offer in vivo therapeutic advantages compared with their parent nucleosides, and this possibility should be considered in future evaluations of this structural class of trypanocides.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 2663-2673 ◽  
Author(s):  
M C Strobel ◽  
J Abelson

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae leucine-inserting amber suppressor tRNA gene SUP53 (a tRNALeu3 allele) was used to investigate the relationship between precursor tRNA structure and mature tRNA function. This gene encodes a pre-tRNA which contains a 32-base intron. The mature tRNASUP53 contains a 5-methylcytosine modification of the anticodon wobble base. Mutations were made in the SUP53 intron. These mutant genes were transcribed in an S. cerevisiae nuclear extract preparation. In this extract, primary tRNA gene transcripts are end-processed and base modified after addition of cofactors. The base modifications made in vitro were examined, and the mutant pre-tRNAs were analyzed for their ability to serve as substrates for partially purified S. cerevisiae tRNA endonuclease and ligase. Finally, the suppressor function of these mutant tRNA genes was assayed after their integration into the S. cerevisiae genome. Mutant analysis showed that the totally intact precursor tRNA, rather than any specific sequence or structure of the intron, was necessary for efficient nonsense suppression by tRNASUP53. Less efficient suppressor activity correlated with the absence of the 5-methylcytosine modification. Most of the intron-altered precursor tRNAs were successfully spliced in vitro, indicating that modifications are not critical for recognition by the tRNA endonuclease and ligase.


2006 ◽  
Vol 396 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrysoula Panethymitaki ◽  
Paul W. Bowyer ◽  
Helen P. Price ◽  
Robin J. Leatherbarrow ◽  
Katherine A. Brown ◽  
...  

The eukaryotic enzyme NMT (myristoyl-CoA:protein N-myristoyltransferase) has been characterized in a range of species from Saccharomyces cerevisiae to Homo sapiens. NMT is essential for viability in a number of human pathogens, including the fungi Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans, and the parasitic protozoa Leishmania major and Trypanosoma brucei. We have purified the Leishmania and T. brucei NMTs as active recombinant proteins and carried out kinetic analyses with their essential fatty acid donor, myristoyl-CoA and specific peptide substrates. A number of inhibitory compounds that target NMT in fungal species have been tested against the parasite enzymes in vitro and against live parasites in vivo. Two of these compounds inhibit TbNMT with IC50 values of <1 μM and are also active against mammalian parasite stages, with ED50 (the effective dose that allows 50% cell growth) values of 16–66 μM and low toxicity to murine macrophages. These results suggest that targeting NMT could be a valid approach for the development of chemotherapeutic agents against infectious diseases including African sleeping sickness and Nagana.


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