title: Remarks on the phylogeny and structure of fatty acid binding proteins from parasitic platyhelminths.
abstract: Four fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) have been described in 4 parasitic platyhelminths: Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosoma japonicum, Fasciola hepatica and Echinococcus granulosus. FABPs form a multigenic family of cytosolic proteins widely distributed in metazoan tissues, the function of which is still poorly understood. These helminth proteins have recently received attention, since there are reports to indicate that S. mansoni and F. hepatica FABPs may be protective antigens. In addition, these proteins could play a major role in the parasites' life-cycles because platyhelminths are unable to synthesize de novo most of their lipids. We have undertaken phylogenetic and structural analyses of platyhelminth FABPs in an attempt to characterize features of biological relevance. Phylogenetically, these FABPs appear to be more closely related to those of vertebrate heart, mammary gland, muscle, retina, skin, brain and myelin, although no clear functional relationships were established between them. We describe several conserved motifs characteristic of specific groups of FABPs. Hydrophilicity, flexibility and accessibility analyses revealed several major putative epitopes for the E. granulosus FABP, EgDf1, that appear to be centred in loops of the EgDf1 3-dimensional structure modelled by molecular replacement.
authors.affiliation: Sección Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esteves
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paulino
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ehrlich
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000145:classification*; D004446:Echinococcus; D000939:Epitopes; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005210:Fasciola hepatica; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018996:Myelin P2 Protein / Q000145:classification*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D010271:Parasites; D010802:Phylogeny; D010986:Platyhelminths; D012547:Schistosoma; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D000939:Epitopes; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins; D018996:Myelin P2 Protein; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins