Role of IscS in Fe-S cluster assembly in Trypanosoma brucei

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 35S-38S
Author(s):  
O. SMID ◽  
E. VONDRUSKOVA ◽  
V. VILIMOVA ◽  
R. SUT'AK ◽  
J. LUKE ◽  
...  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubem Figueiredo Sadok Menna-Barreto ◽  
Solange Lisboa de Castro

The pathogenic trypanosomatidsTrypanosoma brucei,Trypanosoma cruzi, andLeishmaniaspp. are the causative agents of African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis, respectively. These diseases are considered to be neglected tropical illnesses that persist under conditions of poverty and are concentrated in impoverished populations in the developing world. Novel efficient and nontoxic drugs are urgently needed as substitutes for the currently limited chemotherapy. Trypanosomatids display a single mitochondrion with several peculiar features, such as the presence of different energetic and antioxidant enzymes and a specific arrangement of mitochondrial DNA (kinetoplast DNA). Due to mitochondrial differences between mammals and trypanosomatids, this organelle is an excellent candidate for drug intervention. Additionally, during trypanosomatids’ life cycle, the shape and functional plasticity of their single mitochondrion undergo profound alterations, reflecting adaptation to different environments. In an uncoupling situation, the organelle produces high amounts of reactive oxygen species. However, these species role in parasite biology is still controversial, involving parasite death, cell signalling, or even proliferation. Novel perspectives on trypanosomatid-targeting chemotherapy could be developed based on better comprehension of mitochondrial oxidative regulation processes.


Author(s):  
Kirsten J. Meyer ◽  
Theresa A. Shapiro

Trypanosoma brucei subspecies cause African sleeping sickness in humans, an infection that is commonly fatal if not treated, and available therapies are limited. Previous studies have shown that heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitors have potent and vivid activity against bloodstream form trypanosomes. Hsp90s are phylogenetically conserved and essential catalysts that function at the crux of cell biology, where they ensure the proper folding of proteins and their assembly into multicomponent complexes. To assess the specificity of Hsp90 inhibitors and further define the role of Hsp90s in African trypanosomes, we used RNAi to knockdown cytosolic and mitochondrial Hsp90s (HSP83 and HSP84, respectively). Loss of either protein led to cell death but the phenotypes were distinctly different. Depletion of cytosolic HSP83 closely mimicked the consequences of chemically depleting Hsp90 activity with inhibitor 17-AAG. In these cells cytokinesis was severely disrupted and segregation of the kinetoplast (the massive mitochondrial DNA structure unique to this family of eukaryotic pathogens) was impaired, leading to cells with abnormal kDNA structures. Quite differently, knockdown of mitochondrial HSP84 did not impair cytokinesis but halted the initiation of new kDNA synthesis, generating cells without kDNA. These findings highlight the central role for Hsp90s in chaperoning cell cycle regulators in trypanosomes, reveal their unique function in kinetoplast replication, and reinforce their specificity and value as drug targets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. e1007326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maiko Luis Tonini ◽  
Priscila Peña-Diaz ◽  
Alexander C. Haindrich ◽  
Somsuvro Basu ◽  
Eva Kriegová ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismaila A. UMAR ◽  
Zipporah A. TOH ◽  
Funnilayo I. IGBALAJOBI ◽  
Abubakar GIDADO ◽  
Lawan B. BURATAI

Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 51-51
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. Wingert ◽  
Bruce Barut ◽  
Helen Foott ◽  
Paula Fraenkel ◽  
Kimberly Dooley ◽  
...  

Abstract Iron is required in the mitochondria both to produce heme, which is used for hemoglobin synthesis, and to make iron-sulfur (Fe/S) clusters, which confer electron transfer or catalytic functions to proteins. Cellular iron utilization and Fe/S cluster production are thought to occur independently, yet the processes are coordinated through currently uncharacterized pathways. The shiraz (sir) zebrafish mutant manifests a hypochromic, microcytic anemia. Positional cloning of sir discovered a deletion at the locus that included the zebrafish orthologue to glutaredoxin 5 (grx5), a gene required in yeast for Fe/S cluster assembly. We found that grx5 is highly expressed in the developing blood and fetal liver of both zebrafish and mouse embryos. Antisense-mediated morpholino knockdown of grx5 prevented hemoglobin production, and overexpression of zebrafish, yeast, mouse, or human grx5 RNA in sir embryos completely rescued hemoglobin production, indicating that grx5 is the gene responsible for the sir phenotype. Expression of zebrafish grx5 was found to rescue Fe/S protein production in the yeast Δgrx5 strain, demonstrating that the role of grx5 in Fe/S cluster assembly is conserved among eukaryotes. The surprising finding that mutating a gene necessary for Fe/S cluster assembly caused a lack of hemoglobin synthesis suggested that we had discovered a connection between these pathways. In vertebrates, iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) acts as a sensor of intracellular iron levels and controls cellular iron homeostasis via posttranscriptional regulation of iron uptake, storage, and utilization genes. For instance, IRP1 binds to the 5′ iron response element (IRE) in the aminolevulinate synthase 2 (ALAS2) mRNA, blocking translation when cellular iron is low. However, when cellular iron is replete, IRP1 binds a Fe/S cluster and its RNA-binding activity is abolished. We hypothesized that the loss of Fe/S cluster assembly in sir would activate IRP1 and block ALAS2 synthesis, resulting in hypochromia. In support of this model, overexpression of ALAS2 RNA without the 5′ IRE rescued sir hypochromia, while overexpression of ALAS2 including the IRE did not facilitate rescue. Furthermore, antisense morpholino knockdowns of IRP1 caused rescue of hemoglobin synthesis in sir embryos. The combination of these data indicate that hemoglobin production in the differentiating red cell is monitored through Fe-S cluster assembly as a mechanism to gauge iron levels and accordingly direct heme synthesis. This finding illustrates a crucial role for the mitochondrial Fe/S cluster assembly machinery during hemoglobin production, and has broad implications for the role of such genes in human hypochromic anemias.


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