title: Transcripts from the co-transposed segment of variant surface glycoprotein genes are in Trypanosoma brucei polyribosomes.
abstract: In Trypanosoma brucei the 5' proximal flanking sequences of a variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene, the co-transposed segment, are transcribed in a variant antigenic type- and stage-specific fashion along with the VSG gene. The precursor transcripts are subsequently processed to yield smaller transcripts from the co-transposed segment as well as the VSG mRNA. These co-transposed segment transcripts are quite abundant, polyadenylated and contain the spliced leader sequence, all characteristics of trypanosome mRNAs. We have found that all of the co-transposed segment transcripts from two VSG genes are present in polyribosomes. The nucleotide sequence of much of the co-transposed segment of one of these VSG genes, however, has no open reading frames coding for proteins longer than 49 amino acids. These results suggest that co-transposed segment transcripts do not encode essential proteins even though they are present in polyribosomes and may be translated.
authors.affiliation: Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, WA 98109.
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Aline
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Scholler
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stuart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA; D009710:Nucleotide Mapping; D011132:Polyribosomes / Q000032:analysis*; D015347:RNA Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000235:genetics*; D014643:Variant Surface Glycoproteins, Trypanosoma / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015347:RNA Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014643:Variant Surface Glycoproteins, Trypanosoma; D004247:DNA