The ATP-binding cassette proteins of the deep-branching protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis.
The ATP binding cassette (ABC) proteins are a family of membrane transporters and regulatory proteins responsible for diverse and critical cellular process in all organisms. To date, there has been no attempt to investigate this class of proteins in the infectious parasite Trichomonas vaginalis. We have utilized a combination of bioinformatics, gene sequence analysis, gene expression and confocal microscopy to investigate the ABC proteins of T. vaginalis. We demonstrate that, uniquely among eukaryotes, T. vaginalis possesses no intact full-length ABC transporters and has undergone a dramatic expansion of some ABC protein sub-families. Furthermore, we provide preliminary evidence that T. vaginalis is able to read through in-frame stop codons to express ABC transporter components from gene pairs in a head-to-tail orientation. Finally, with confocal microscopy we demonstrate the expression and endoplasmic reticulum localization of a number of T. vaginalis ABC transporters.
School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.
Christopher
C
Kay
Katharine D
KD
Woodward
Karen
K
Lawler
Tim J
TJ
Self
Sabrina D
SD
Dyall
Ian D
ID
Kerr
D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000201:enzymology; D005784:Gene Amplification; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D005810:Multigene Family; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014246:Trichomonas vaginalis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*
D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters