Affiliation:
1. Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2063
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The
Leishmania mexicana
PFR2 locus encodes a component of the paraflagellar rod (PFR), a flagellar structure found only in the insect stage of the life cycle.
PFR2
mRNA levels are 10-fold lower in the mammalian stage than in the insect stage. Nuclear run-on experiments indicate that the change in
PFR2
mRNA abundance is achieved posttranscriptionally. Deletion and block substitution analysis of the entire 1,400-nucleotide 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of
PFR2C
led to the identification of a regulatory element contained within 10 nucleotides of the 3′ UTR, termed the PFR regulatory element (PRE), that is necessary for the 10-fold regulation of
PFR2
mRNA levels. Comparison of the half-lives of
PFR2
transcripts, identical except for the presence or absence of the PRE, revealed that the PRE acts by destabilizing the
PFR2
mRNA in amastigotes. The PRE was inserted into a construct which directs the constitutive expression of a chimeric
PFR2
transcript. Insertion of the PRE resulted in regulated expression of this transcript, demonstrating that the regulatory element is sufficient for promastigote-specific expression. Since the PRE is present in the 3′ UTR of all
L. mexicana
PFR genes examined so far, we propose that it serves a means of coordinating expression of PFR genes.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Microbiology
Cited by
46 articles.
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