Molecular mechanisms of thermal resistance of the insect trypanosomatid Crithidia thermophila

Abstract

In the present work, we investigated molecular mechanisms governing thermal resistance of a monoxenous trypanosomatid Crithidia luciliae thermophila, which we reclassified as a separate species C. thermophila. We analyzed morphology, growth kinetics, and transcriptomic profiles of flagellates cultivated at low (23°C) and elevated (34°C) temperature. When maintained at high temperature, they grew significantly faster, became shorter, with genes involved in sugar metabolism and mitochondrial stress protection significantly upregulated. Comparison with another thermoresistant monoxenous trypanosomatid, Leptomonas seymouri, revealed dramatic differences in transcription profiles of the two species with only few genes showing the same expression pattern. This disparity illustrates differences in the biology of these two parasites and distinct mechanisms of their thermotolerance, a prerequisite for living in warm-blooded vertebrates.

First Draft Genome of the Trypanosomatid Herpetomonas muscarum ingenoplastis through MinION Oxford Nanopore Technology and Illumina Sequencing

“…The analysis of the gGAPDH gene, widely used in barcoding and taxonomic studies [6], revealed an identity of 85% over 713 nucleotides between H. muscarum ingenoplastis and H. muscarum. The maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic trees reconstructed with gGAPDH were generally in agreement with the described phylogeny of the group [11] (Figure 1) and indicated that this isolate is phylogenetically distant from all described trypanosomatids, and therefore must be assigned to a new genus, as previously suggested [9,10]. The genomes in public database are unevenly distributed among the Trypanosomatidae family and the vast majority are concentrated in Leishmania and Trypanosoma genera (more than 50).…”

“…Subsequently, gGAPDH sequences were aligned using multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput (MAFFT) online server and manually refined in BioEdit [21]. To identify the phylogenetic position of the isolate, phylogenetic trees were created using Paratrypanosoma confusum, as the outgroup [11]. Phylogenetic trees were constructed using two probabilistic methods, ML and BI, which were based on GTR + G substitution model, according to the Akaike Information Criterion and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) using Jmodeltest [22].…”

On monoxenous trypanosomatids from lesions of immunocompetent patients with suspected cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran

“…In all cases documented thus far, the immunosuppressing agent was either HIV or the dixenous (shuttling between two hosts) Leishmania donovani [6][7][8][9][10]. While thermoresistance is an important pre-adaptation for living in warm-blooded vertebrates, it is not sufficient by itself [11,12]. Sporadic old reports [e.g.…”

“…Nevertheless, it seems that the authors have discovered a novel thermotolerant monoxenous trypanosomatid closely related to C. fasciculata. The appearance of such strains in a tropical/subtropical climate is not surprising, provided constant pressure of the elevated temperature on insects and their parasites [11]. Whether such species are able to infect humans remains to be investigated further with more scrutiny and special attention paid to potential co-infectants.…”

<b>Genes de cisteíno proteases (catepsina L-like) de <i>Leishmania infantum chagasi</i></b>: caracterização, relações filogenéticas e diagnóstico molecular

“…Os tripanossomatídeos podem ser monoxênicos ou heteroxênicos e de acordo com as formas apresentadas durante o desenvolvimento, se distribuem em quinze gêneros distintos. Onze destes gêneros compreendem protozoários monoxênicos parasitas de insetos, são eles: Angomonas, Blastocrithidia, Blechomonas, Crithidia, Herpetomonas, Leptomonas, Paratrypanosoma, Rynchoidomonas, Sergeia, Strigomonas e Wallaceina (PODLIPAEV, 1990;SVOBODOVA et al, 2007;BORGHESAN, 2013;GOMES, 2014;ISHEMGULOVA et al, 2017). O gênero Phytomonas reúne espécies heteroxênicas cujo ciclo requer a alternância entre insetos de hábito fitófago e hospedeiros vegetais (BUTLER et al, 2017).…”