Sex in protists: A new perspective on the reproduction mechanisms of trypanosomatids - PubMed (original) (raw)

Sex in protists: A new perspective on the reproduction mechanisms of trypanosomatids

Verônica Santana da Silva et al. Genet Mol Biol. 2022.

Abstract

The Protist kingdom individuals are the most ancestral representatives of eukaryotes. They have inhabited Earth since ancient times and are currently found in the most diverse environments presenting a great heterogeneity of life forms. The unicellular and multicellular algae, photosynthetic and heterotrophic organisms, as well as free-living and pathogenic protozoa represents the protist group. The evolution of sex is directly associated with the origin of eukaryotes being protists the earliest protagonists of sexual reproduction on earth. In eukaryotes, the recombination through genetic exchange is a ubiquitous mechanism that can be stimulated by DNA damage. Scientific evidences support the hypothesis that reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced DNA damage can promote sexual recombination in eukaryotes which might have been a decisive factor for the origin of sex. The fact that some recombination enzymes also participate in meiotic sex in modern eukaryotes reinforces the idea that sexual reproduction emerged as consequence of specific mechanisms to cope with mutations and alterations in genetic material. In this review we will discuss about origin of sex and different strategies of evolve sexual reproduction in some protists such that cause human diseases like malaria, toxoplasmosis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1 -

Figure 1 -. DMC1 sequence alignment between Leishmania and trypanosomes. Amino acid sequences of meiosis-specific recombinase DMC1 were obtained from the TriTrypDB database. DMC1_Lm, Leishmania major (ID: LmjF.35.4890); DMC1_Tb, Trypanosoma brucei (ID: Tb927.9.9620); DMC1_Tc, Trypanosoma cruzi (ID: TcCLB.506885.310). Loop1 and loop2 regions are highlighted by red boxes. Alignment was performed using the multiple sequence alignment function of Clustal Omega.

Figure 2-

Figure 2-. Sequence identity of meiotic proteins found in trypanosomatids. Comparison of meiosis toolkit proteins sequences between Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania major, and Homo sapiens, for which these proteins are well characterized. Dashed lines represent comparisons between different organisms. Meiotic proteins of T. cruzi shared with T. brucei, Leishmania, and humans are highlighted in red. Trypanosomatid protein sequences used for comparisons were obtained from the TriTrypDB database and human protein sequences were acquired from GenBank, according to the accession numbers listed in Table S1. Sequence identity was assessed using Clustal Omega. Amino acid sequences were aligned individually and paired between organisms. The percentage of identical amino acids is shown in parentheses next to each protein analyzed.

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Internet Resources Section

    1. Amino acid sequences of meiosis-specific recombinase DMC1 (TriTrypDB database) [23 November 2021]. Amino acid sequences of meiosis-specific recombinase DMC1 (TriTrypDB database), https://tritrypdb.org/tritrypdb/app .
    1. Multiple sequence alignment software (Clustal Omega) [23 November 2021]. Multiple sequence alignment software (Clustal Omega), https://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/
    1. Trypanosomatid protein sequences (TriTrypDB database) [23 November 2021]. https://tritrypdb.org/tritrypdb/app .
    1. Human protein sequences (GenBank) [23 November 2021]. Human protein sequences (GenBank), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/protein/
    1. Sequences identity between the different organisms (Clustal Omega) [23 November 2021]. Sequences identity between the different organisms (Clustal Omega), https://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/

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