Leishmania donovani: effect of temperature on RNA metabolism

The present study concerns RNA metabolism of Leishmania donovani and its changes during exposure to higher temperatures. The incorporation of labeled precursors into RNA was found to be greatly decreased during incubation at 37 °C in comparison with that at the optimum temperature of growth (22 °C). The decreased incorporation was shown to be mainly due to augmented template RNA degradation. The RNA-polymerase activity remained unaffected at the elevated temperature, but the uptake of labeled uracil was markedly inhibited.