An Insight into the proteome of Crithidia fasciculata choanomastigotes as a comparative approach to axenic growth, peanut lectin agglutination and differentiation of Leishmania spp. promastigotes

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 11;9(12):e113837. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113837. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The life cycle of the trypanosomatid Crithidia fasciculata is monogenetic, as the unique hosts of these parasites are different species of culicids. The comparison of these non-pathogenic microorganisms evolutionary close to other species of trypanosomatids that develop digenetic life cycles and cause chronic severe sickness to millions of people worldwide is of outstanding interest. A ground-breaking analysis of differential protein abundance in Crithidia fasciculata is reported herein. The comparison of the outcome with previous gene expression profiling studies developed in the related human pathogens of the genus Leishmania has revealed substantial differences between the motile stages of these closely related organisms in abundance of proteins involved in catabolism, redox homeostasis, intracellular signalling, and gene expression regulation. As L. major and L. infantum agglutinate with peanut lectin and non-agglutinating parasites are more infective, the agglutination properties were evaluated in C. fasciculata. The result is that choanomastigotes are able to agglutinate with peanut lectin and a non-agglutinating subpopulation can be also isolated. As a difference with L. infantum, the non-agglutinating subpopulation over-expresses the whole machinery for maintenance of redox homeostasis and the translation factors eIF5a, EF1α and EF2, what suggests a relationship between the lack of agglutination and a differentiation process.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agglutination
  • Axenic Culture*
  • Crithidia fasciculata / growth & development*
  • Crithidia fasciculata / metabolism*
  • Homeostasis
  • Kinetics
  • Leishmania / growth & development*
  • Lipid Metabolism
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Peanut Agglutinin / metabolism*
  • Pentose Phosphate Pathway
  • Proteomics*
  • Protozoan Proteins / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • Species Specificity
  • Sulfhydryl Compounds / metabolism
  • Transcriptome

Substances

  • Peanut Agglutinin
  • Protozoan Proteins
  • Sulfhydryl Compounds

Grants and funding

PA thanks CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLÓGICAS CSIC for two contracts of employment at a position included in the A1 group (respectively developed from January 16th to July 23rd 2008 and from October 16th 2008 to April 15th 2009). AA thanks CSIC for the Ph.D. contract 5072160068 W0SC000077 within the A1 group. This work has been partially defrayed by the grant AGL2010-21806-C02-01 (Spanish Ministry of Science, MICINN), RICET (RETICS-FIS, FEDER) collaborative network grant and the Fundación Ramón Areces contract 050204100014/OTT code 20100338. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.