Field Mark C
The Molteno Building, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK, CB2 1QP.
Trends Parasitol. 2005 Oct;21(10):447-50. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2005.08.008.
The genomes of the three principle experimental-model species of Kinetoplastida -Trypanosoma brucei brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania major - are now complete, providing both a milestone for trypanosome biology and an opportunity to consider a multitude of questions at the genome level. Of the >40 members of the Ras-like GTPase family in T. brucei, at least 30 are involved in intracellular transport, whereas fewer than eight are likely to have a classical role in signal transduction. There are no true members of the Ras or Rho subfamilies but divergent Ras- or Rho-like GTPases are present, suggesting that signalling mechanisms in trypanosomatids are highly unusual. Comparisons of T. brucei with T. cruzi and L. major indicate a high degree of conservation among the species. These analyses provide a framework for the functional investigation of small-GTPase-mediated signalling processes in trypanosomes.
动质体目三个主要实验模型物种——布氏布氏锥虫、克氏锥虫和硕大利什曼原虫——的基因组现已完成，这既是锥虫生物学的一个里程碑，也为在基因组层面思考众多问题提供了契机。在布氏锥虫的40多个类Ras GTP酶家族成员中，至少30个参与细胞内运输，而可能在信号转导中发挥经典作用的成员少于8个。不存在Ras或Rho亚家族的真正成员，但存在不同的类Ras或类Rho GTP酶，这表明锥虫的信号传导机制非常独特。布氏锥虫与克氏锥虫和硕大利什曼原虫的比较表明，这些物种之间具有高度的保守性。这些分析为锥虫中小GTP酶介导的信号传导过程的功能研究提供了框架。
