Adenylate kinase 4 (TzADK4) in Trypanosoma cruzi

BOUVIER LA; MIRANDA MR; CANEPA GE; PEREIRA CA

Mar del Plata, Bs. As.

Congreso; XLIII Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2007

Adenylate kinase 4 (TzADK4) in Trypanosoma cruzi. Bouvier, L.A., Miranda, M.R. Cánepa, G.E., Pereira, C.A. IDIM (CONICET-UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adenylate kinases are phosphotransferases, which catalyze the interconversion of adenosine nucleotides. These enzymes maintain the cellular ATP homeostasis and duplicate ATP´s energetic potential. While eukaryotic cells typically contain three adenylate kinase isoforms, kinetoplastid parasites present at least three additional isoenzymes. The unusual large amount of adenilate kinase variants present in these organisms could be explained by their differential intracellular positioning or their differential expression patterns along the life cycle. Each variant presents particular structural characteristics which could account for their localization. In Trypanosoma cruzi apart from TzAdK1, TzADK4 is another isoform with a particular long N-terminal domain. This enzyme is homologous to TbADKE from Trypanosoma brucei, which has been shown to be targeted to the flagellar axoneme. In this work we study the localization of TzAdK4, expression pattern along the life cycle and the association to cellular structures by means of Western-Blot and the expression of tagged proteins in Trypanosoma cruzi. BB