Cloning, functional analysis and post-transcriptional regulation of a type II DNA topoisomerase from Leishmania infantum. A new potential target for anti-parasite drugs.

ABSTRACT: We identified a type II topoisomerase enzyme from Leishmania infantum, a parasite protozoon causing disease in humans. This protein, named Li topo II, which displays a variable C-terminal end, is located in the kinetoplast. The cloned gene encoding Li-TOP2 compensates for the slow growth of topo II-deficient mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, resulting in a catalytically active DNA topoisomerase in yeast. Analysis of the specific mRNA levels of the Li-TOP2 gene showed variations throughout the parasite cell cycle in synchronized cells as well as between the distinct forms of the parasite. Thus, the enzyme had higher levels of mRNA expression in the highly infective intracellular form of the parasite, the amastigote, than in the extracellular promastigote form, suggesting a relation with

SUBMITTER: Hanke T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC169929 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature