The krebs cycle enzyme ?-ketoglutarate decarboxylase is an essential glycosomal protein in bloodstream African trypanosomes.
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ABSTRACT: ?-Ketoglutarate decarboxylase (?-KDE1) is a Krebs cycle enzyme found in the mitochondrion of the procyclic form (PF) of Trypanosoma brucei. The bloodstream form (BF) of T. brucei lacks a functional Krebs cycle and relies exclusively on glycolysis for ATP production. Despite the lack of a functional Krebs cycle, ?-KDE1 was expressed in BF T. brucei and RNA interference knockdown of ?-KDE1 mRNA resulted in rapid growth arrest and killing. Cell death was preceded by progressive swelling of the flagellar pocket as a consequence of recruitment of both flagellar and plasma membranes into the pocket. BF T. brucei expressing an epitope-tagged copy of ?-KDE1 showed localization to glycosomes and not the mitochondrion. We used a cell line transfected with a reporter construct containing the N-terminal sequence of ?-KDE1 fused to green fluorescent protein to examine the requirements for glycosome targeting. We found that the N-terminal 18 amino acids of ?-KDE1 contain overlapping mitochondrion- and peroxisome-targeting sequences and are sufficient to direct localization to the glycosome in BF T. brucei. These results suggest that ?-KDE1 has a novel moonlighting function outside the mitochondrion in BF T. brucei.
SUBMITTER: Sykes S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4346564 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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