Comparative Metabolism of Free‐living Bodo saltans and Parasitic Trypanosomatids |
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Authors: | Pavel Flegontov Vyacheslav Yurchenko Julius Lukeš |
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Affiliation: | 1. Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic;2. Biology Centre, Institute of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences, ?eské Budějovice (Budweis), Czech Republic;3. A.A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;4. Faculty of Science, Institute of Environmental Technologies, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic;5. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, ?eské Budějovice (Budweis), Czech Republic;6. Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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Abstract: | Comparison of the genomes of free‐living Bodo saltans and those of parasitic trypanosomatids reveals that the transition from a free‐living to a parasitic life style has resulted in the loss of approximately 50% of protein‐coding genes. Despite this dramatic reduction in genome size, B. saltans and trypanosomatids still share a significant number of common metabolic traits: glycosomes; a unique set of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway genes; an ATP‐PFK which is homologous to the bacterial PPi‐PFKs rather than to the canonical eukaryotic ATP‐PFKs; an alternative oxidase; three phosphoglycerate kinases and two GAPDH isoenzymes; a pyruvate kinase regulated by fructose‐2,6‐bisphosphate; trypanothione as a substitute for glutathione; synthesis of fatty acids via a unique set of elongase enzymes; and a mitochondrial acetate:succinate coenzyme A transferase. B. saltans has lost the capacity to synthesize ubiquinone. Among genes that are present in B. saltans and lost in all trypanosomatids are those involved in the degradation of mureine, tryptophan and lysine. Novel acquisitions of trypanosomatids are components of pentose sugar metabolism, pteridine reductase and bromodomain‐factor proteins. In addition, only the subfamily Leishmaniinae has acquired a gene for catalase and the capacity to convert diaminopimelic acid to lysine. |
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Keywords: | adaptation
Leishmania
Leptomonas
lateral gene transfer parasitism
Phytomonas
Trypanosoma
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