Subcellular localization of Trypanosoma cruzi arginine kinase.

MIRANDA, MARIANA; BOUVIER, LEÓN ALBERTO; CANEPA, GASPAR; PEREIRA, CLAUDIO

PARASITOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2009 vol. 136 p. 1201 - 1207

0031-1820

Phosphoarginine is a cell energy buffer molecule synthesized by the enzyme arginine kinase. In Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas´ disease, two different isoforms were identified by data mining, but only one is expressed during the parasite life cycle. The digitonin extraction pattern of arginine kinase differed from those obtained for reservosomes, glycosomes and mitochondrial markers, and similar to the cytosolic marker. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed that although arginine kinase is localized mainly in unknown punctuated structures and also in the cytosol, do not co-localize with none of the subcelular markers. This punctuated pattern has been previously observed in many cytosolic proteins of trypanosomatids. The knowledge of the subcellular localization of phosphagen kinases is a crucial issue to understand their physiological role in protozoan parasites.