Predicting the Proteins of Angomonas deanei, Strigomonas culicis and Their Respective Endosymbionts Reveals New Aspects of the Trypanosomatidae Family

Endosymbiont-bearing trypanosomatids have been considered excellent models for the study of cell evolution because the host protozoan co-evolves with an intracellular bacterium in a mutualistic relationship. Such protozoa inhabit a single invertebrate host during their entire life cycle and exhibit special characteristics that group them in a particular phylogenetic cluster of the Trypanosomatidae family, thus classified as monoxenics. in an effort to better understand such symbiotic association, we used DNA pyrosequencing and a reference-guided assembly to generate reads that predicted 16,960 and 12,162 open reading frames (ORFs) in two symbiont-bearing trypanosomatids, Angomonas deanei (previously named as Crithidia deanei) and Strigomonas culicis (first known as Blastocrithidia culicis), respectively. Identification of each ORF was based primarily on TriTrypDB using tblastn, and each ORF was confirmed by employing getorf from EMBOSS and Newbler 2.6 when necessary. the monoxenic organisms revealed conserved housekeeping functions when compared to other trypanosomatids, especially compared with Leishmania major. However, major differences were found in ORFs corresponding to the cytoskeleton, the kinetoplast, and the paraflagellar structure. the monoxenic organisms also contain a large number of genes for cytosolic calpain-like and surface gp63 metalloproteases and a reduced number of compartmentalized cysteine proteases in comparison to other TriTryp organisms, reflecting adaptations to the presence of the symbiont. the assembled bacterial endosymbiont sequences exhibit a high A+T content with a total of 787 and 769 ORFs for the Angomonas deanei and Strigomonas culicis endosymbionts, respectively, and indicate that these organisms hold a common ancestor related to the Alcaligenaceae family. Importantly, both symbionts contain enzymes that complement essential host cell biosynthetic pathways, such as those for amino acid, lipid and purine/pyrimidine metabolism. These findings increase our understanding of the intricate symbiotic relationship between the bacterium and the trypanosomatid host and provide clues to better understand eukaryotic cell evolution.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)ERC AdG SISYPHEUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Inst Biofis Carlos Chagas Filho, Lab Ultraestrutura Celular Hertha Meyer, BR-21941 Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Inst Biofis Carlos Chagas Filho, Lab Metab Macromol Firmino Torres de Castro, BR-21941 Rio de Janeiro, BrazilLab Bioinformat, Lab Nacl Computacao Cient, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilINRIA Grenoble Rhone Alpes, BAMBOO Team, Villeurbanne, FranceUniv Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Lab Biometrie & Biol Evolut, F-69622 Villeurbanne, FranceUniv Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Genet Evolucao & Bioagentes, São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Fac Ciencias Farmaceut Ribeirao Preto, Dept Ciencias Farmaceut, São Paulo, BrazilLab Nacl Ciencia & Tecnol Bioetano, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Minas Gerais, Inst Ciencias Biol, Dept Bioquim & Imunol, Belo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUniv Fed Goias, Inst Ciencias Biol, Mol Biol Lab, Goiania, Go, BrazilFundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Inst Carlos Chagas, Lab Biol Mol Tripanossomatideos, Curitiba, Parana, BrazilFundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Inst Carlos Chagas, Lab Genom Func, Curitiba, Parana, BrazilUniv Estadual Campinas, Ctr Pluridisciplinar Pesquisas Quim Biol & Agr, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Minas Gerais, Inst Ciencias Biol, Dept Parasitol, Belo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUniv Fed Santa Catarina, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Ctr Ciencias Biol, Lab Protozool & Bioinformat, Florianopolis, SC, BrazilUniv Fed Vicosa, Dept Bioquim & Biol Mol, Ctr Ciencias Biol & Saude, Vicosa, MG, BrazilInst Butantan, Lab Especial Ciclo Celular, São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Dept Biol, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Molecular Epidemiology of Agents of Human Chromoblastomycosis in Brazil with the Description of Two Novel Species

The human mutilating disease chromoblastomycosis is caused by melanized members of the order Chaetothyriales. To assess population diversity among 123 clinical strains of agents of the disease in Brazil we applied sequencing of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer region, and partial cell division cycle and β-tubulin genes. Strains studied were limited to three clusters divided over the single family Herpotrichiellaceae known to comprise agents of the disease. A Fonsecaea cluster contained the most important agents, among which F. pedrosoi was prevalent with 80% of the total set of strains, followed by 13% for F. monophora, 3% for F. nubica, and a single isolate of F. pugnacius. Additional agents, among which two novel species, were located among members of the genus Rhinocladiella and Cyphellophora, with frequencies of 3% and 1%, respectively

Numbers of ORFs identified in <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis</i> and their symbionts, according to the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair, signal transduction, transcription and translation.

<p>Numbers of ORFs identified in <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis</i> and their symbionts, according to the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair, signal transduction, transcription and translation.</p

Members of the Fts family and PBPs that are present in endosymbionts of <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis</i>.

<p>nd: not determined.</p

Protein Reference Sequence-Guided Assembly data of <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis</i> genomes.

<p>Protein Reference Sequence-Guided Assembly data of <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis</i> genomes.</p

Phylogenetic of histones of <i>A. deanei, S. culicis,</i> and other trypanosomatids.

<p>Histone protein (panel A) and nucleotide (panel B) sequences were generated by MUSCLE tool using 10 iterations in the Geneious package <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0060209#pone.0060209-Drummond1" target="_blank">[120]</a>. Trees were constructed using the Geneious Tree Builder, by employing Jukes-Cantor genetic distance model with a neighbor-joining method and no out-groups. The consensus trees were generated from 100 bootstrap replicates of all detected histone genes, as shown below. Scale bars are indicated for each consensus tree. The trees in panel A are based in a collection of sequences of all trypanosomatids. The nucleotide sequences used for dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase are: <i>T. cruzi,</i> XM_810234; <i>T. brucei</i>, XM_841078; <i>T. vivax,</i> HE573023; <i>L. mexicana</i>, FR799559; <i>L. major</i>, XM_001680805; <i>L. infantum</i>, XM_001680805; and <i>C. fasciculata</i>, M22852.</p

Summary of the origin of ORFs found in <i>A. deanei</i> and <i>S. culicis.</i>

*<p>Number of genes with identity to Prokaryotes.</p>**<p>Number of genes with identity to Eukaryotes.</p>***<p>Ratio of the number of genes with identity to Prokaryotes/Eukaryotes.</p

Respiratory chain complexes identified in the predicted proteome of <i>A. deanei</i>, <i>S. culicis</i> and their respective endosymbionts.

*<p>The complex IV of the endosymbionts might be a cytochrome <i>d</i> ubiquinol oxidase identified in both organisms, instead a classical cytochrome <i>c</i> oxidase.</p