Depletion of the SR-Related Protein TbRRM1 Leads to Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis-Like Death in Trypanosoma brucei

LEVY, GABRIELA VANESA; BAÑUELOS, CAROLINA; NÍTTOLO, ANALÍA; ORTIZ, GASTÓN; MENDIONDO, NICOLÁS; MORETTI, GEORGINA; TEKIEL, VALERIA; SÁNCHEZ, DANIEL O

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2015 vol. 10 p. 1 - 20

1932-6203

Arginine-Serine (RS) domain-containing proteins are RNA binding proteins with multiplefunctions in RNA metabolism. In mammalian cells this group of proteins is also implicated inregulation and coordination of cell cycle and apoptosis. In trypanosomes, an early branchinggroup within the eukaryotic lineage, this group of proteins is represented by 3 members,two of them are SR proteins and have been recently shown to be involved in rRNA processingas well as in pre-mRNA splicing and stability. Here we report our findings on the 3rdmember, the SR-related protein TbRRM1. In the present study, we showed that TbRRM1ablation by RNA-interference in T. brucei procyclic cells leads to cell-cycle block, abnormalcell elongation compatible with the nozzle phenotype and cell death by an apoptosis-likemechanism. Our results expand the role of the trypanosomal RS-domain containing proteinsin key cellular processes such as cell cycle and apoptosis-like death, roles also carriedout by the mammalian SR proteins, and thus suggesting a conserved function in this phylogeneticallyconserved protein family.