Proliferative features and first evidence of ornithine decarboxylase activity in Phytomonas Jma

S. MARCORA; C. CARRILLO; C. ZADIKIAN; I. ALGRANATI

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XLIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2007

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones Bioquímicas (SAIB)

The Phytomonas genus comprises trypanosomatid flagellates infecting a wide variety of plants. Despite Phytomonas spp. produce important economic losses and are phylogenetically close to human pathogenic parasites, their life cycle and biochemical features are still poorly known. In this work we have studied the “in vitro” growth kinetic in Phytomona Jma promastigotes cultivated in different media (LIT, BHT and SDM-79). In all cases the doubling time in log phase was around 20h and the maximal cell density 90x106/ml  in all media. Phytomonas growth was not affected by the inhibitors of polyamine biosynthesis DFMO or CHA separately, but was markedly reduced when both inhibitors were combined. As an initial step for the characterization of polyamine metabolism in Phytomonas Jma, we measured ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity; it was dependent on the growth phase, being maximal at log phase, and was inhibited by DFMO as much as Crithidia fasciculate ODC used as control. Further studies on polyamine metabolism are currently under way in our lab.