Role of p38 in Replication of Trypanosoma brucei Kinetoplast DNA
- 1 July 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Molecular and Cellular Biology
- Vol. 26 (14) , 5382-5393
- https://doi.org/10.1128/mcb.00369-06
Abstract
Trypanosomes have an unusual mitochondrial genome, called kinetoplast DNA, that is a giant network containing thousands of interlocked minicircles. During kinetoplast DNA synthesis, minicircles are released from the network for replication as θ-structures, and then the free minicircle progeny reattach to the network. We report that a mitochondrial protein, which we term p38, functions in kinetoplast DNA replication. RNA interference (RNAi) of p38 resulted in loss of kinetoplast DNA and accumulation of a novel free minicircle species named fraction S. Fraction S minicircles are so underwound that on isolation they become highly negatively supertwisted and develop a region of Z-DNA. p38 binds to minicircle sequences within the replication origin. We conclude that cells with RNAi-induced loss of p38 cannot initiate minicircle replication, although they can extensively unwind free minicircles.Keywords
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