Regulation of Amino Acid Transporter expression in Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis.

• Grant number: 12/01227-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: April 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Lucile Maria Floeter-Winter
• Grantee: Maria Cármen Oliveira Pinho de Sales
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 10/52688-8 - Biochemical, physiological and functional genomics studies of Leishmania-macrophage interaction, AP.TEM

Abstract

Parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania offer unique characteristics as a model to study pathogen - host interactions in biochemical and physiological aspects, especially at the infection of macrophages in the mammalian host. The understanding of how the interaction takes place allows the definition of strategies to intervene in the infection.Previous results from the laboratory showed the presence of an amino acid transporter in Leishmania amazonensis. The characterization of how amino acid uptake occurs was initiated and the existence of two genes in tandem coding the transporter was demonstrated. An interesting observation is that one of the copies is much more expressed than the other, despite the open reading frame (ORF) of both presented approximately 96% identity. In addition, the copy more expressed also presented a differential regulation, depending on the stage of culture and on the presence of arginine, both in the culture as well as the internal "pool" of arginine in the parasite. Thus, this project goal is to verify if the presence (or absence) of L-arginine at different stages of the parasite's life can change their physiology in both the insect vector as in the mammalian host, identifying the genetic regions of transporter gene that are responsible for this regulation.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SALES, Maria Cármen Oliveira Pinho de. Regulation of expression of the amino acid transporter of Leishmania (Leishmania.) amazonensis. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo (IMT) São Paulo.