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Novel insertions in the mitochondrial maxicircle of Trypanosoma musculi, a mouse trypanosome

Wang, JF; Lin, RH; Zhang, X; Hide, G; Lun, ZR; Lai, DH

Novel insertions in the mitochondrial maxicircle of Trypanosoma musculi, a mouse trypanosome Thumbnail


Authors

JF Wang

RH Lin

X Zhang

ZR Lun

DH Lai



Abstract

Trypanosoma musculi is a, globally distributed, mouse-specific haemoflagellate, of the family Trypanosomatidae, which shares similar characteristics in morphology with Trypanosoma lewisi. The kinetoplast (mitochondrial) DNA of Trypanosomatidae flagellates is comprised of catenated maxicircles and minicircles. However, genetic information on the T. musculi kinetoplast remains largely unknown. In this study, the T. musculi maxicircle genome was completely assembled, with PacBio and Illumina sequencing, and the size was confirmed at 34 606 bp. It consisted of 2 distinct parts: the coding region and the divergent regions (DRs, DRI and II). In comparison with other trypanosome maxicircles (Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and T. lewisi), the T. musculi maxicircle has a syntenic distribution of genes and shares 73.9, 78.0 and 92.7% sequence identity, respectively, over the whole coding region. Moreover, novel insertions in MURF2 (630 bp) and in ND5 (1278 bp) were found, respectively, which are homologous to minicircles. These findings support an evolutionary scenario similar to the one proposed for insertions in Trypanosoma cruzi, the pathogen of American trypanosomiasis. These novel insertions, together with a deletion (281 bp) in ND4, question the role of Complex I in T. musculi. A detailed analysis of DRII indicated that it contains numerous repeat motifs and palindromes, the latter of which are highly conservative and contain A5C elements. The comprehensively annotated kinetoplast maxicircle of T. musculi reveals a high degree of similarity between this parasite and the maxicircle of T. lewisi and suggests that the DRII could be a valuable marker for distinguishing these evolutionarily related species.

Citation

Wang, J., Lin, R., Zhang, X., Hide, G., Lun, Z., & Lai, D. (2022). Novel insertions in the mitochondrial maxicircle of Trypanosoma musculi, a mouse trypanosome. Parasitology, 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182022001019

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 17, 2022
Publication Date Aug 4, 2022
Deposit Date Sep 7, 2022
Publicly Available Date Sep 7, 2022
Journal Parasitology
Print ISSN 0031-1820
Publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Pages 1-42
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182022001019
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182022001019
Additional Information Funders : National Natural Science Foundation of China
Projects : 31672276;31720103918

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