Cargando…
Trypanosoma cruzi Coexpressing Ornithine Decarboxylase and Green Fluorescence Proteins as a Tool to Study the Role of Polyamines in Chagas Disease Pathology
Polyamines are essential for Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. As T. cruzi behaves as a natural auxotrophic organism, it relies on host polyamines biosynthesis. In this paper we obtained a double-transfected T. cruzi parasite that expresses the green fluorescent protein (GFP)...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research
2011
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3112526/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21687606 http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/657460 |
Sumario: | Polyamines are essential for Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. As T. cruzi behaves as a natural auxotrophic organism, it relies on host polyamines biosynthesis. In this paper we obtained a double-transfected T. cruzi parasite that expresses the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and a heterologous ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), used itself as a novel selectable marker. These autotrophic and fluorescent parasites were characterized; the ODC presented an apparent Km for ornithine of 0.51 ± 0.16 mM and an estimated V(max) value of 476.2 nmoles/h/mg of protein. These expressing ODC parasites showed higher metacyclogenesis capacity than the auxotrophic counterpart, supporting the idea that polyamines are engaged in this process. This double-transfected T. cruzi parasite results in a powerful tool—easy to follow by its fluorescence—to study the role of polyamines in Chagas disease pathology and in related processes such as parasite survival, invasion, proliferation, metacyclogenesis, and tissue spreading. |
---|