Plant-like Traits Associated with Metabolism of Trypanosoma Parasites

Trypanosomatid parasites cause serious diseases among humans, livestock, and plants. They belong to the order of the Kinetoplastida and form, together with the Euglenida, the phylum Euglenozoa. Euglenoid algae possess plastids capable of photosynthesis, but plastids are unknown in trypanosomatids. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2003-02, Vol.100 (3), p.1067-1071
Main Authors: Hannaert, Véronique, Saavedra, Emma, Duffieux, Francis, Szikora, Jean-Pierre, Rigden, Daniel J., Paul A. M. Michels, Opperdoes, Fred R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Biological Sciences
Chloroplasts
Chloroplasts - metabolism
Cytosol
Cytosol - metabolism
Databases as Topic
DNA, Kinetoplast - metabolism
Endosymbionts
Enzymes
Evolution, Molecular
Flowers & plants
Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase - genetics
Genome
Leishmania - metabolism
Metabolism
Microbodies
Microbodies - genetics
Microbodies - metabolism
Molecular Sequence Data
Open Reading Frames
Organelles
Parasites
Parasitism
Peroxisomes - metabolism
Phylogeny
Plants - metabolism
Plastids
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Trypanosoma - metabolism
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Summary:Trypanosomatid parasites cause serious diseases among humans, livestock, and plants. They belong to the order of the Kinetoplastida and form, together with the Euglenida, the phylum Euglenozoa. Euglenoid algae possess plastids capable of photosynthesis, but plastids are unknown in trypanosomatids. Here we present molecular evidence that trypanosomatids possessed a plastid at some point in their evolutionary history. Extant trypanosomatid parasites, such as Trypanosoma and Leishmania, contain several "plant-like" genes encoding homologs of proteins found in either chloroplasts or the cytosol of plants and algae. The data suggest that kinetoplastids and euglenoids acquired plastids by endosymbiosis before their divergence and that the former lineage subsequently lost the organelle but retained numerous genes. Several of the proteins encoded by these genes are now, in the parasites, found inside highly specialized peroxisomes, called glycosomes, absent from all other eukaryotes, including euglenoids.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0335769100