Molecular cloning, sequencing, and expression analysis of presenilin cDNA from Schistosoma mansoni.

Magalhães, Lizandra Guidi; Borges, William de Castro; Gomes, Matheus de Souza; Cota, Renata Guerra de Sá; Rodrigues, Vanderlei

Molecular cloning, sequencing, and expression analysis of presenilin cDNA from Schistosoma mansoni.

Date

2009

Authors

Magalhães, Lizandra Guidi

Borges, William de Castro

Gomes, Matheus de Souza

Cota, Renata Guerra de Sá

Rodrigues, Vanderlei

Abstract

Presenilins (PS) are integral membrane proteins involved, among other functions, in regulated intramembrane proteolysis. In this study, we report the identification and characterization of a complementary DNA from Schistosoma mansoni exhibiting a significant homology to human and nonvertebrate presinilins. S. mansoni contained a 1,485 bp open reading frame encoding a predicted protein of 494 amino acids. Alignment of predicted amino acid sequence of S. mansoni with PS (SmPS) from other species revealed up to 40% similarity shared among the investigated organisms. In addition, phylogenetic analyses demonstrated SmPS being closely related to its orthologues found in Schistosoma japonicum and Caenorhabditis elegans. Expression analysis of SmPS using quantitative real-time PCR revealed that the transcript is up-regulated in the egg stage. We hypothesize that the high level of SmPS in the S. mansoni embryo correlates to an important role during cellular signaling associated to larval development. To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to investigate the existence and abundance of PS from a helminth parasite.

Citation

MAGALHÃES, L. G. et al. Molecular cloning, sequencing, and expression analysis of presenilin cDNA from Schistosoma mansoni. Parasitology Research, v. 106, p. 07-13, 2009. Disponível em: <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00436-009-1620-9>. Acesso em: 23 fev. 2017.