Beverley S M, Turco S J
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Ann Trop Med Parasitol. 1995 Dec;89 Suppl 1:11-17. doi: 10.1080/00034983.1995.11813009.
A powerful approach for identifying the genes involved in the infectious cycle of pathogens is functional genetic complementation. Here, the current status of this technology in Leishmania is reviewed, focusing on the genes involved in the biosynthesis of the unique parasite surface glycolipid, lipophosphoglycan (LPG). LPG plays multiple roles in the Leishmania infectious cycle, in both the sand fly vector and in establishing successful intracellular parasitism within the vertebrate macrophage. The emerging methods for generating LPG mutations and for recovering the affected gene(s) by complementation with an episomal genomic Leishmania DNA library are reviewed. The properties and probable roles of the first two genes identified by this methodology are discussed. These methods also show great promise in the search for genes affecting other virulence factors of Leishmania as well as in the identification of new drug-resistance loci.
一种用于鉴定参与病原体感染周期的基因的强大方法是功能基因互补。本文综述了该技术在利什曼原虫中的现状，重点关注参与独特寄生虫表面糖脂——脂磷壁酸（LPG）生物合成的基因。LPG在利什曼原虫的感染周期中发挥多种作用，包括在沙蝇载体中以及在脊椎动物巨噬细胞内建立成功的细胞内寄生。本文综述了产生LPG突变以及通过与附加体质粒基因组利什曼原虫DNA文库互补来恢复受影响基因的新出现的方法。讨论了通过这种方法鉴定出的前两个基因的特性和可能的作用。这些方法在寻找影响利什曼原虫其他毒力因子的基因以及鉴定新的耐药位点方面也显示出巨大的前景。
