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Trypanosoma brucei is a protozoan flagellate that causes African sleeping sickness. Flagellar function in this organism is critical for life cycle progression and pathogenesis, however the regulation of flagellar motility is not well understood. The flagellar axoneme produces a complex beat through the precisely coordinated firing of many proteins, including multiple dynein motors. These motors are found in the inner arm and outer arm complexes. We are studying one of the inner arm dynein motors in the T. brucei flagellum: dynein-f. RNAi knockdown of genes for two components of dynein-f: DNAH10, the alpha heavy chain, and IC138, an intermediate chain, cause severe motility defects including immotility. To determine if motility defects result from structural disruption of the axoneme, we used two different flagellar preparations to carefully examine axoneme structure in these strains using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our analysis showed that inner arm dynein size, axoneme structural integrity and fixed central pair orientation are not significantly different in either knockdown culture when compared to control cultures. These results support the idea that immotility in knockdowns affecting DNAH10 or IC138 results from loss of dynein-f function rather than from obvious structural defects in the axoneme.

Five genes are thought to be required for transcription of methanol oxidation genes in Methylobacterium strains. These putative regulatory genes include mxcQE, which encode a putative sensor-regulator pair, and mxbDM and mxaB, whose functions are less well-understood. In this study, mxbDM in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 were shown to be required for expression of a xyIE transcriptional fusion to the structural gene for the large subunit of methanol dehydrogenase (mxaF), confirming the role of these genes in transcriptional regulation of mxaF. The nucleotide sequence suggests that mxbD encodes a histidiine protein kinase with two transmembrane domains and that mxbM encodes a DNA-binding response regulator. A xyIE transcriptional fusion to the putative mxbD promoter showed low-level expression in wild-type cells grown on one-carbon (C1) compounds and no detectable expression in cells grown on succinate. Deletion analysis of this promoter construct showed that the region 229-129 bp upstream of the start of mxbD is required for expression. The expression of the mxbD-xylE fusion was examined in each of the five known regulatory mutant classes. xyIE expression was reduced to non-detectable levels in MxcQ and MxcE mutants, but was not affected in the other regulatory mutants or in non-regulatory mutants defective in methanol oxidation. These results suggest a regulatory hierarchy in which the sensor-regulator pair MxcQE control expression of the sensor-regulator pair MxbDM, and MxbDM in turn control expression of a number of genes involved in methanol oxidation.

Two-hundred-and-eight new Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 methanol oxidation (Mox) mutants were isolated and placed into complementation groups. Complementation analyses identified new Mox groups in the Mxb and Mxc loci and at a new locus, Mxd. Thirty-seven mutants at the Mxb locus were divided into MxbM and MxbD complementation groups on the basis of their complementation pattern. Twenty-nine mutants at the Mxc locus fell into three complementation groups, MxcB, MxcQ and MxcE. The direction of transcription for genes at this locus could be inferred from the subclones. Eighteen of the new mutants were not complemented by previously isolated M. extorquens AM1 clones but were complemented by two new overlapping clones. This locus was called Mxd and the mutants fell into two complementation groups, MxdR and MxdS. Immunoblots from all these mutant classes showed that all of the Mxb and Mxc strains had substantially reduced levels of MxaF (large subunit of methanol dehydrogenase) and cytochrome cL, compared to the wild-type. These mutants, particularly the Mxb mutants, also had elevated levels of cytochrome c-553. These results are consistent with a role for the MxbMD and MxcBQE complementation groups in the regulation of expression of mxaF. The MxdR and MxdS mutants had normal levels of MxaF and both c-type cytochromes.

Background Var genes encode a family of virulence factors known as PfEMP1 (Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1) which are responsible for both antigenic variation and cytoadherence of infected erythrocytes. Although these molecules play a central role in malaria pathogenesis, the mechanisms generating variant antigen diversification are poorly understood. To investigate var gene evolution, we compared the variant antigen repertoires from three geographically diverse parasite isolates: the 3D7 genome reference isolate; the recently sequenced HB3 isolate; and the IT4/25/5 (IT4) parasite isolate which retains the capacity to cytoadhere in vitro and in vivo. Results These comparisons revealed that only two var genes (var1csa and var2csa) are conserved in all three isolates and one var gene (Type 3 var) has homologs in IT4 and 3D7. While the remaining 50 plus genes in each isolate are highly divergent most can be classified into the three previously defined major groups (A, B, and C) on the basis of 5' flanking sequence and chromosome location. Repertoire-wide sequence comparisons suggest that the conserved homologs are evolving separately from other var genes and that genes in group A have diverged from other groups. Conclusion These findings support the existence of a var gene recombination hierarchy that restricts recombination possibilities and has a central role in the functional and immunological adaptation of var genes.

Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 pqqEF are genes required for synthesis of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ). The nucleotide sequence of these genes indicates PqqE belongs to an endopeptidase family, including PqqF of Klebsiella pneumoniae, and M. extorquens AM1 PqqF has low identity with the same endopeptidase family. M. extorquens AM1 pqqE complemented a K. pneumoniae pqqF mutant.