Adenylosuccinate lyase of Schistosoma mansoni: gene structure, mRNA expression, and analysis of the predicted peptide structure of a potential chemotherapeutic target.

Adenylosuccinate lyase is an enzyme used in parasite nucleotide salvage pathways that cleaves adenylosuccinate into adenosine 5'-monophosphate and fumarate. A cDNA encoding adenylosuccinate lyase from the trematode parasite Schistosoma mansoni has been cloned for analysis. Sequencing of the cDNA revealed an open reading frame of 1454 nucleotides that codes for a protein with a predicted mass of about 54.5 kDa. Comparative analysis of the predicted protein sequence shows that S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase has a lot of similarity with human adenylosuccinate lyase. Genomic analysis using S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase-containing bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones revealed a gene of approximately 19.4 kb consisting of eight exons and seven introns. Intron 6 was found to contain a novel 2.9 kb long terminal repeat retrotransposon with direct terminal repeats of 500 nucleotides. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation mapping localised S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase to the Z and W chromosomes. Analysis of S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase mRNA expression levels using real time reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR showed that S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase is expressed at higher levels in the female worms than in the male worms and is expressed at different levels than other purine nucleotide salvage enzymes. Male homogenate showed a specific activity of 10.3 units/mg protein while the female showed a specific activity of 24.2 units/mg protein. These data indicate that S. mansoni adenylosuccinate lyase is an important parasite enzyme and should be examined as a potential chemotherapeutic target.