Martinez-Hernandez J Eduardo, Aliaga-Tobar Victor, González-Rosales Carolina, Monte-Neto Rubens, Martin Alberto J M, Maracaja-Coutinho Vinicius
Núcleo de Investigación en Data Science, Facultad de Ingeniería y Negocios, Universidad de Las Américas, Santiago, Chile.
Centro de Genómica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias, Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025 May 28;19(5):e0013108. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013108. eCollection 2025 May.
Leishmania spp. is the etiological agent of leishmaniases, neglected diseases that seek to be eradicated in the coming years. The life cycle of these parasites involves different host and stress environments. In recent years, many studies have shown that several protein-coding genes are directly involved with the development and host interactions. However, little is still known about the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in life cycle progression. In this study, we aimed to identify the genomic structure and function of ncRNAs from Leishmania spp. and to get insights into the repertoire of ncRNAs (RNAome) of this protozoan genus. We studied 26 strains corresponding to 16 different species of Leishmania. Our RNAome analysis revealed the presence of several ncRNAs that are shared among different species, allowing us to differentiate between subgenera as well as between species that are canonically related to visceral leishmaniasis. We also studied co-expression relationships between coding genes and ncRNAs which in the amastigote developmental stage for Leishmania braziliensis and Leishmania donovani revealed the presence of miRNA-like transcripts co-expressed with several coding genes involved in starvation, survival and histone modification. This work represents the first effort to characterize the Leishmania ssp. RNAome, supporting further approaches to better understand the role of ncRNAs in gene regulation, infective process, and host-parasite interaction.
利什曼原虫属是利什曼病的病原体，这些被忽视的疾病有望在未来几年被根除。这些寄生虫的生命周期涉及不同的宿主和应激环境。近年来，许多研究表明，一些蛋白质编码基因直接参与其发育和与宿主的相互作用。然而，关于非编码RNA（ncRNA）在生命周期进程中的作用仍知之甚少。在本研究中，我们旨在鉴定利什曼原虫属ncRNA的基因组结构和功能，并深入了解这种原生动物属的ncRNA（RNA组）组成。我们研究了对应于16种不同利什曼原虫物种的26个菌株。我们的RNA组分析揭示了几种在不同物种间共享的ncRNA的存在，这使我们能够区分亚属以及与内脏利什曼病典型相关的物种。我们还研究了编码基因与ncRNA之间的共表达关系，在巴西利什曼原虫和杜氏利什曼原虫的无鞭毛体发育阶段，发现了与几个参与饥饿、存活和组蛋白修饰的编码基因共表达的类似miRNA的转录本。这项工作是对利什曼原虫属RNA组进行表征的首次尝试，为进一步深入了解ncRNA在基因调控、感染过程和宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用中的作用提供了支持。
