title: Understanding the importance of conservative hypothetical protein LdBPK_070020 in Leishmania donovani and its role in subsistence of the parasite.
abstract: The genome of Leishmania donovani, the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis, codes for approximately 65% of both conserved and non-conserved hypothetical proteins. Studies on 'conserved hypothetical' proteins are expected to reveal not only new and crucial aspects of Leishmania biochemistry, but it could also lead to discovery of novel drug candidates. Conserved hypothetical protein, LdBPK_070020, is a 31.14 kDa protein, encoded by an 810 bp gene. BLAST analysis of LdBPK_070020, performed against NCBI non-redundant database, showed 80-99% similarity with conserved hypothetical proteins of Leishmania belonging to other species. Using homologues recombination method, we have performed gene knockout of LdBPK_070020 and effects of the same were investigated on the parasite. The gene knocked out strain shows significant retardation in growth with respect to wild type. Detailed biochemical studies indicated towards important role of LdBPK_070020 in the parasite survival and growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India.
authors.forename: Ruchika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhardwaj
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India.
authors.forename: Ritesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Computer Aided Drug Designing and Molecular Modeling Laboratory, Department of Bioinformatics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu 630 004, India. Electronic address: skysanjeev@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sanjeev Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Konkuk University, Gwangjingu, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Chandrabose
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Selvaraj
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India. Electronic address: vdubey@iitg.ernet.in.
authors.forename: Vikash Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Dubey
mesh_terms: D030562:Databases, Protein; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins
keywords: Conserved hypothetical protein; Gene knockout; Leishmania donovani