Trypanosoma cruzi amino acid transporter TcAAAP411 mediates arginine uptake in yeasts.

CARRILLO, CAROLINA; CANEPA, GASPAR; GIACOMETTI, ALINA; BOUVIER, LEÓN ALBERTO; MIRANDA, MARIANA; CAMARA, MARIA DE LOS MILAGROS

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2010 vol. 306 p. 97 - 102

0378-1097

Trypanosoma cruzi, the aetiological agent of Chagas´ disease, is exposed to extremely different environment conditions during its life cycle, and transporters are key molecules for its adaptive regulation. Amino acids, and particularly arginine, are essential components in T. cruzi metabolism. In this work, a novel T. cruzi arginine permease was identified by screening different members of the AAAP family (amino acid/auxin permeases) in yeast complementation assays using a toxic arginine analogue. One gene candidate, TcAAAP411, was characterized as a very specific, high-affinity, l-arginine permease. This work is the first identification of the molecular components involved specifically in amino acid transport in T. cruzi and provides new insights for further validation of the TcAAAP family as functional permeases.