title: Evidence that the entire length of a kinetoplast DNA minicircle is transcribed in Trypanosoma cruzi.
abstract: A 1.3 kb cDNA (cDNA52) was derived from Trypanosoma cruzi trypomastigote mRNA. Using single stranded probes in Northern blots, we identified the putative coding strand of cDNA52. In addition, a minor band was detected in RNA from epimastigotes that was absent in RNA from trypomastigotes. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that cDNA52 was highly homologous to T. cruzi kinetoplast DNA minicircle sequences. All four conserved regions of T. cruzi minicircles were identified in cDNA52. Using several criteria, we demonstrated that the hybridization signals were not caused by contaminating minicircle DNA in the RNA preparations. The data provide direct evidence for the unprecedented finding that the entire length of a kDNA minicircle is transcribed in T. cruzi.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York 14642.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thertulien
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Harth
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Haidaris
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000235:genetics*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015388:Organelles; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004270:DNA, Circular; D016054:DNA, Protozoan