Abstract
Selenoproteins have been described in all three domains of life and their function has been mainly associated with oxidative stress defense. Canonical elements required for selenoprotein production have been identified in members of the kinetoplastid group supporting the existence of a complete selenocysteine synthesis pathway in these organisms. Currently, nothing is known regarding the selenocysteine pathway in Trypanosoma evansi. In this study, we identified the expression of the elements selB, selC, selD, PSTK and selTRYP at the mRNA level in T. evansi. All translated proteins (selD, PSTK, selTRYP and selB) have the domains predicted and higher identity with Trypanosoma brucei. gambiense. The selenophosphate synthetase protein was localized in the cytoplasm. Our results support the existence of an active selenocysteine pathway in T. evansi.
Highlights
Trypanosoma evansi is the pathogenic trypanosomatid with the widest distribution worldwide, pos-The incorporation of selenium into proteins is an important metabolic pathway described in all three domains of life and its function has been mainly associated with oxidative stress defence (Papp et al 2007)
PCR performed on cDNA using specific primer pairs for selB, selC, selD, PSTK and selTRYP revealed bands with the predicted sizes for each gene (Figure 1)
Our sequencing results, performed with a brazilian T. evansi strain (Colpo et al 2005), did not differ from the deposited at the TritrypDB
Summary
Trypanosoma evansi is the pathogenic trypanosomatid with the widest distribution worldwide, pos-The incorporation of selenium into proteins is an important metabolic pathway described in all three domains of life and its function has been mainly associated with oxidative stress defence (Papp et al 2007). There is no homolog for selA in eukaryotes, the enzymes O-phosphoseryl-tRNASec kinase (PSTK gene) and O-phosphoseryl-tRNA(Sec) selenium transferase (SepSecS gene) acts in serine phosphorylation and selenocysteylation (Geslain et al 2006). These elements allow the conversion of selenium to its organic form, its aminoacylation into tRNASec and the coupling of nucleotidic at the UGA codon for the insertion of selenocysteine into the protein (Allmang et al 2009). Given the relevance of this parasite in health and economics and the importance of this pathway for the parasite, this study aimed to identify elements of the selenocysteine pathway in T. evansi, and verifying the occurrence of substantial differences between them
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