Phytomonas: a non-pathogenic trypanosomatid model for functional expression of proteins

MIRANDA, MARIANA; SAYE, MELISA; REIGADA, CHANTAL; CARRILLO, CAROLINA; PEREIRA, CA

PROTEIN EXPRESSION AND PURIFICATION

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015

1046-5928

The Phytomonas genus comprises unicellular flagellates which infect a wide variety of plants. Although being phylogenetically close to trypanosomatids parasites that cause several human diseases, until 1970 these protozoan organisms were of little interest to researchers [1]. Phytomonas are non-pathogenic for humans, and can be cultivated in inexpensive undefined media. For example, in Trypanosoma cruzi media, such as LIT (Liver Infusion Tryptose) or BHT (Brain Heart Tryptose), Phytomonas grows with high replication rates [2]. The evolutionary proximity of these parasites to human protozoan pathogens makes it an ideal vehicle for the functional expression of genes from lower eukaryotes. Although no information about the regulation of gene expression in Phytomonas is available, in this work we tested the expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in this organism using a well-known T. cruzi expression vector [3]. The performance of the Phytomonas Jma model was compared with T. cruzi in terms of selection time and protein expression levels.