TOPO3alpha influences antigenic variation by monitoring expression-site-associated VSG switching in Trypanosoma brucei.

ABSTRACT: Homologous recombination (HR) mediates one of the major mechanisms of trypanosome antigenic variation by placing a different variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene under the control of the active expression site (ES). It is believed that the majority of VSG switching events occur by duplicative gene conversion, but only a few DNA repair genes that are central to HR have been assigned a role in this process. Gene conversion events that are associated with crossover are rarely seen in VSG switching, similar to mitotic HR. In other organisms, TOPO3alpha (Top3 in yeasts), a type IA topoisomerase, is part of a complex that is involved in the suppression of crossovers. We therefore asked whether a related mechanism might suppress VSG recombination. Using a set of reliable recombination and swit

SUBMITTER: Kim HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2900300 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature