Genetic profiling of the isoprenoid and sterol biosynthesis pathway genes of Trypanosoma cruzi.

ABSTRACT: In Trypanosoma cruzi the isoprenoid and sterol biosynthesis pathways are validated targets for chemotherapeutic intervention. In this work we present a study of the genetic diversity observed in genes from these pathways. Using a number of bioinformatic strategies, we first identified genes that were missing and/or were truncated in the T. cruzi genome. Based on this analysis we obtained the complete sequence of the ortholog of the yeast ERG26 gene and identified a non-orthologous homolog of the yeast ERG25 gene (sterol methyl oxidase, SMO), and we propose that the orthologs of ERG25 have been lost in trypanosomes (but not in Leishmanias). Next, starting from a set of 16 T. cruzi strains representative of all extant evolutionary lineages, we amplified and sequenced ∼ 24 Kbp from 22 genes,

SUBMITTER: Cosentino RO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4020770 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature