The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Institute, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology Institute, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
Trends Parasitol. 2019 Oct;35(10):778-794. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2019.07.012. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
Trypanosomatids are protozoan parasites that cycle between an insect and a mammalian host. The large-subunit rRNA of these organisms undergoes unique processing events absent in other eukaryotes. Recently, small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) that mediate these specific cleavages were identified. Trypanosomatid rRNA is rich in RNA modifications such as 2'-O-methylation (Nm) and pseudouridylation (Ψ) that are also guided by these snoRNAs. A subset of these modifications is developmentally regulated and increased in the parasite form that propagates in the mammalian host. Such hypermodification contributes the temperature adaptation and hence infectivity during cycling of the parasite. rRNA processing and modification should be considered promising drug targets for fighting the diseases caused by these parasites.
动基体生物是一种在昆虫和哺乳动物宿主之间循环的原生动物寄生虫。这些生物的大亚基 rRNA 经历了在其他真核生物中不存在的独特加工事件。最近，介导这些特定切割的小核仁 RNA（snoRNA）被鉴定出来。动基体生物的 rRNA 富含 RNA 修饰，如 2'-O-甲基化（Nm）和假尿嘧啶化（Ψ），这些修饰也受到这些 snoRNA 的指导。这些修饰中的一部分是发育调节的，并在在哺乳动物宿主中传播的寄生虫形式中增加。这种超修饰有助于寄生虫循环过程中的温度适应和感染性。rRNA 加工和修饰应该被认为是对抗这些寄生虫引起的疾病的有前途的药物靶点。
