Taken together these results suggest that Tc38 changes the internal localization pattern only in the replicative stages of T. cruzi life cycle.

Figure 7 Tc38 patterns in T. cruzi metacyclic trypomastigotes and amastigotes. Phase contrast, DAPI staining and Tc38 signal are indicated. For the merge images, Tc38-Alexa 488 signal is shown in green and DAPI nucleic acid staining in blue. “”N”" indicates the nucleus see more and “”K”" indicates the kinetoplast. Selected metacyclic trypomastigotes and amastigotes that show the most frequent patterns observed are presented. Bars = 5 μm. The dotted box in the phase contrast corresponds to the position of the fluorescent images. Discussion We had previously reported the isolation of Tc38 as a novel single stranded DNA binding protein without known functional domains [12]. It bears a well-defined N-terminal mitochondrial targeting signal and the orthologous protein in T. brucei has been proposed to be a mitochondrial RNA binding protein [11] and more recently to associate with the kDNA [10]. Here we found that anti-Tc38 causes a specific supershift of the complexes formed by total protein extracts of T. cruzi and [dT-dG] rich oligonucleotides including [dT-dG]40, the Universal Minicircle Sequence, a repeated maxicircle sequence putatively related to replication, and the telomere repeat. Biochemical data obtained with both digitonin titration and differential centrifugation suggested that

Tc38 preponderantly resides in the mitochondrion. The fact that Tc38 presents an extraction BAY 80-6946 price profile similar to citrate synthase indicates that it is a soluble matrix protein. Therefore, the previous isolation of Tc38 from nuclear enriched fractions in T. cruzi [12] and its orthologous protein in L. amazonensis [13], and the identification of a 38 kDa putative minicircle DNA binding protein in T. cruzi nuclear extracts [7], could be explained by the contamination of the nuclear fraction with fragmented mitochondria. In fact, there seems to be an intimate association between the mitochondrial and the nuclear membrane in the proximity of the kinetoplast in epimastigotes. The extent of mitochondrial contamination could be masking

a putative nuclear localization if the protein nuclear abundance is low. The subcellular PRKACG localization of Tc38 shown by immunohistochemistry was consistent with the biochemical data, and further evidenced the association with the kinetoplast, depending on the cell cycle stage. The analysis of Tc38 distribution in asynchronic cultures and in parasites obtained with the T. cruzi culture synchronization elegantly described by Galanti et al. [27] indicates that Tc38 localization within the mitochondrion is not static. Yet, exit from the mitochondria in mitosis cannot be excluded. Tc38 shows a homogeneous distribution in G1, a discrete antipodal position in S and a more extended location including the antipodes and the kDNA between them in G2.