The Heat Shock Proteins of Trypanosoma cruzi
Trypanosoma cruzi is the causal agent of Chagas’ disease, a debilitating disorder affecting millions of people in several countries. A flagellated protozoan parasite, T. cruzi has a complex life cycle that involves infecting an insect and a mammalian host
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The Heat Shock Proteins of Trypanosoma cruzi Turán P. Ürményi, Rosane Silva, and Edson Rondinelli
Abstract Trypanosoma cruzi is the causal agent of Chagas’ disease, a debilitating disorder affecting millions of people in several countries. A flagellated protozoan parasite, T. cruzi has a complex life cycle that involves infecting an insect and a mammalian host. During its life cycle, the parasite undergoes several kinds of stress, prominent among which is heat stress. To deal with this environmental challenge, molecular chaperones and proteases, also known as heat shock proteins (HSPs), are induced as part of the stress response. Several families of HSPs are synthesized by T. cruzi, including members of the major HSP classes such as HSP70, HSP90, HSP100, HSP40, chaperonins and small HSPs, and these proteins show conserved and unique features. In this review we describe these proteins and the corresponding gene expression patterns and discuss their relevance to the biology of the parasite.
Abbreviations Clp CHR CSR HSP
Caseinolytic protease Cellular homeostasis response Cellular stress response Heat shock protein
T.P. Ürményi (*) • R. Silva Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] E. Rondinelli Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Departamento de Clínica Médica, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil A.L.S. Santos et al. (eds.), Proteins and Proteomics of Leishmania and Trypanosoma, Subcellular Biochemistry 74, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7305-9_5, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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LIT NBD ROS sHSP UTR
1
Liver infusion tryptose Nucleotide-binding domains Reactive oxidative species Small heat shock protein Untranslated region
The Cellular Stress Response
Variations in environmental conditions must be dealt with by the organism to maintain the structural and functional integrity of cellular components. At the cellular level, two kinds of responses can be discerned: the cellular stress response (CSR) and the cellular homeostasis response (CHR) (reviewed by Kültz 2005). CSR is transient and deals with macromolecular integrity and redox potential, while CHR is environmental stressor-specific and leads to adaptation until the conditions change. CSR is not specific to the type of stress but to the type of damaged macromolecule, and it leads to stress tolerance. Damage to proteins, DNA, and membrane lipids is monitored by the cell, and the response involves: (a) cell cycle control; (b) protein chaperoning, repair or degradation; (c) DNA and chromatin stabilization and repair; and (d) modifications of cellular metabolism. The basic CSR is very evolutionarily conserved, but several species-specific aspects and components are present that reflect the particular circumstances of the organism. Typical CSR inducers are heat and oxidative stress. Here we review the curren
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