A novel high-throughput activity assay for the Trypanosoma brucei editosome enzyme REL1 and other RNA ligases.

ABSTRACT: The protist parasite Trypanosoma brucei causes Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), which threatens millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Without treatment the infection is almost always lethal. Current drugs for HAT are difficult to administer and have severe side effects. Together with increasing drug resistance this results in urgent need for new treatments. T. brucei and other trypanosomatid pathogens require a distinct form of post-transcriptional mRNA modification for mitochondrial gene expression. A multi-protein complex called the editosome cleaves mitochondrial mRNA, inserts or deletes uridine nucleotides at specific positions and re-ligates the mRNA. RNA editing ligase 1 (REL1) is essential for the re-ligation step and has no close homolog in the mammalian host, making it a p

SUBMITTER: Zimmermann S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4756849 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature