title: Analysis of the mitochondrial maxicircle of Trypanosoma lewisi, a neglected human pathogen.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The haemoflagellate Trypanosoma lewisi is a kinetoplastid parasite which, as it has been recently reported to cause human disease, deserves increased attention. Characteristic features of all kinetoplastid flagellates are a uniquely structured mitochondrial DNA or kinetoplast, comprised of a network of catenated DNA circles, and RNA editing of mitochondrial transcripts. The aim of this study was to describe the kinetoplast DNA of T. lewisi.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, purified kinetoplast DNA from T. lewisi was sequenced using high-throughput sequencing in combination with sequencing of PCR amplicons. This allowed the assembly of the T. lewisi kinetoplast maxicircle DNA, which is a homologue of the mitochondrial genome in other eukaryotes. The assembly of 23,745 bp comprises the non-coding and coding regions. Comparative analysis of the maxicircle sequence of T. lewisi with Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma rangeli, Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania tarentolae revealed that it shares 78%, 77%, 74% and 66% sequence identity with these parasites, respectively. The high GC content in at least 9 maxicircle genes of T. lewisi (ATPase6; NADH dehydrogenase subunits ND3, ND7, ND8 and ND9; G-rich regions GR3 and GR4; cytochrome oxidase subunit COIII and ribosomal protein RPS12) implies that their products may be extensively edited. A detailed analysis of the non-coding region revealed that it contains numerous repeat motifs and palindromes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have sequenced and comprehensively annotated the kinetoplast maxicircle of T. lewisi. Our analysis reveals that T. lewisi is closely related to T. cruzi and T. brucei, and may share similar RNA editing patterns with them rather than with L. tarentolae. These findings provide novel insight into the biological features of this emerging human pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Center for Parasitic Organisms, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Tropical Diseases and Control of the Ministry of Education, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, The People's Republic of China. linruohong6@163.com.
authors.forename: Ruo-Hong
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Center for Parasitic Organisms, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Tropical Diseases and Control of the Ministry of Education, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, The People's Republic of China. laidehua@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: De-Hua
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, The People's Republic of China. zhengll33@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ling-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, The People's Republic of China. jasonwufree2012@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences and Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice (Budweis), Czech Republic. jula@paru.cas.cz.|Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Canada. jula@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Julius
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lukeš
authors.affiliation: Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre and Biomedical Research Centre, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, UK. g.hide@salford.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Geoff
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hide
authors.affiliation: Center for Parasitic Organisms, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Tropical Diseases and Control of the Ministry of Education, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, The People's Republic of China. lsslzr@mail.sysu.edu.cn.|Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, The People's Republic of China. lsslzr@mail.sysu.edu.cn.|Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre and Biomedical Research Centre, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, UK. lsslzr@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhao-Rong
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Lun
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D023061:Gene Order; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017393:RNA Editing; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014350:Trypanosoma lewisi / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast; D016054:DNA, Protozoan