INVESTIGADORES
ROPOLO Andrea Silvana
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
ROLE OF PALMITOYLATION DURING Giardia lamblia
Autor/es:
MERINO, MC; VRANYCH CV; TOUZ MC; RÓPOLO ANDREA SILVANA
Lugar:
Potrero de Funes. San Luis
Reunión:
Congreso; 47 Annual Meeting of the Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2011
Institución organizadora:
SAIB
Resumen:
A key step
in the life cycle of G. lamblia is the differentiation of the
trophozoites into cysts. This process is induced in response to host-specific
factors such as high levels of bile, low levels of cholesterol and a basic pH. One
of the early events that occur during encystation is the synthesis of cyst wall
proteins (CWP). Post-translational modifications (PTM) such as palmitoylation,
are important to regulate molecular mechanisms involved in cell homeostasis and
intracellular signaling. It has been shown that Variant-specific surface
proteins of G. lamblia are palmitoylated, and the enzyme responsible for
this activity has been characterized. However, the role of palmitoylation in
encystation has not been reported yet. So, the aim of this work is to elucidate
the role of this PTM in encystation in G. lamblia. We observed that when
palmitoylation is inhibited by adding 2-fluoro-palmitic acid to the encysting
media the percentage of cells expressing CWP1 decreased. Moreover, we observed
an increase of CWP1+ parasites in encysting G. lamblia trophozoites that
overexpressed a palmitoyl transferase, compared to wild type G. lamblia.
Due to the many intracellular signals involved in the encystation process it is
possible that PTM such as palmitoylation have an important role. Further
studies are needed to find out the molecular mechanisms in which palmitoylation
may be involved.