Role of Proteomics in the Study of Trypanosoma cruzi Biology

Abstract

Proteomics is the science that studies the proteome, which corresponds to the global expression of proteins at a given time under determined conditions. In the last 20 years, proteomics has emerged as a powerful tool that has allowed the study of proteins that are expressed in the cell under normal or altered conditions as well as post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, glycosidation, acetylation, and methylation, among others. In this chapter, we present the main contributions of proteomics to the knowledge of Trypanosoma cruzi biology. Proteomes of all T. cruzi life cycle stages, secretomes/exoproteomes, post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation or acetylation and immunomes, interactomes, and glycomes are described. The role of proteomics in the identification of new chemotherapeutic targets and potential vaccine candidates will also be discussed.

Extensive Translational Regulation through the Proliferative Transition of Trypanosoma cruzi Revealed by Multi-Omics

“…Both observations represent a validation of biological relevance for the transcriptome and translatome data sets, as genes related to the infective stages are transcribed but are not selected for translation in the epimastigote stage. Finally, 4,524 protein groups were detected at the proteomic level, which corresponds to 4,918 genes, i.e., 47%, representing a high coverage of the genome in comparison to previous studies ( 48 , 49 ) ( Fig. 3A ).…”