Babesia bovis: A bipartite signal directs the glutamyl-tRNA synthetase to the apicoplast

[Display omitted] ► Protein traffic into the apicoplastic lumen requires a bipartite signal. ► Glutamyl tRNA synthetase (GltX) is a putative apicoplast targeted protein. ► GltX contains a bipartite signal sequence, a pre-requisite for apicoplast traffic. ► GltX bipartite sequence successfully direct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Experimental parasitology Vol. 131; no. 2; pp. 261 - 266
Main Authors:	Pedroni, Monica J., Luu, Tracy N.K., Lau, Audrey O.T.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Elsevier Inc 01-06-2012 Academic Press
Subjects:	algorithms Animals Apicoplast Babesia bovis Babesia bovis - enzymology Babesia bovis - metabolism Babesia bovis - ultrastructure biochemical pathways blood Cattle Electroporation Erythrocytes - parasitology Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic Glutamate-tRNA Ligase - metabolism Glutamyl tRNA synthetase green fluorescent protein nuclear genome Organelles - enzymology parasitology Protein Processing, Post-Translational - physiology Research Brief Signal Transduction - physiology Traffic Transfection transfer RNA Apicoplast Glutamyl tRNA synthetase Transfection Babesia bovis Traffic
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Summary:	[Display omitted] ► Protein traffic into the apicoplastic lumen requires a bipartite signal. ► Glutamyl tRNA synthetase (GltX) is a putative apicoplast targeted protein. ► GltX contains a bipartite signal sequence, a pre-requisite for apicoplast traffic. ► GltX bipartite sequence successfully directed GFP into the apicoplast. ► Native GltX may utilize its bipartite sequence for apicoplast entry. Babesia bovis contains a prokaryotic derived organelle known as the apicoplast. Many participants of the metabolic pathways within the apicoplast are encoded in the nuclear genome and post-translationally imported with the help of a bipartite signal. Recently, an all encompassing algorithm was derived to predict apicoplast targeted proteins for many non-Plasmodium apicomplexans in which it reported the presence of 260 apicoplast targeted proteins in Babesia. One of these proteins is glutamyl tRNA synthetase (GltX). This study investigates if the putative bipartite signal of GltX alone is sufficient to direct proteins into the apicoplast. Using a transient transfection system consisting of a green fluorescent protein as the reporter, we tested the signal and transit portions of the bipartite signal in apicoplastic transport. We first identified the transcript of gltX to be expressed during the asexual blood stages and subsequently confirmed that the complete bipartite signal is responsible for directing the reporter protein into a compartment distinct from the nucleus and the mitochondrion. As GltX bipartite signal successfully guided the reporter protein into the apicoplast, our finding implies that it also directs native GltX into the same organelle.
Bibliography:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2012.04.013 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0014-4894 1090-2449
DOI:	10.1016/j.exppara.2012.04.013