FAP20 is required for flagellum assembly in Trypanosoma brucei.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma brucei is a human and animal pathogen that depends on flagellar motility for transmission and infection. The trypanosome flagellum is built around a canonical "9+2" axoneme, containing nine doublet microtubules (DMTs) surrounding two singlet microtubules. Each DMT contains a 13-protofilament A-tubule and a 10-protofilament B-tubule, connected to the A-tubule by a conserved, non-tubulin inner junction (IJ) filament made up of alternating PACRG and FAP20 subunits. Here we investigate FAP20 in procyclic form T. brucei. A FAP20-NeonGreen fusion protein localized to the axoneme as expected. Surprisingly, FAP20 knockdown led to a catastrophic failure in flagellum assembly and concomitant lethal cell division defect. This differs from other organisms, where FAP20 is requ

SUBMITTER: Shimogawa MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10827224 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature