Authors

G T Di Mario¹; J L Escalona¹; M M Edreira¹;  ¹ Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Discussion

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) signalling has shown to be essential in Trypanosoma cruzi biology. However, little is known about downstream effectors in the cAMP-dependent pathways in the parasite. Previous reports showed the presence of several ORFs in T. cruzi genome that possess putative Cyclic Nucleotide Binding domains (CNBs), such as cAMP Responsive Protein 1 (CARP1) and Protein Kinase A (PKA). However, while it has been demonstrated that CARP1 binds cAMP, unlike its mammalian counterpart, PKA from T. brucei and T. equiperdum are unable to bind the cyclic nucleotide. In this regard, sequence alignment with canonical cAMP effectors have shown differences in some key aminoacids in the Phosphate Binding Cassette (PBC) of the CNB present in PKA, a crucial region for cAMP-protein interaction. In order to increase the knowledge about cAMP and other nucleosides mediated pathways of T. cruzi, we modelled two proteins homologues to the regulatory subunit of mammalian PKA, TcCLB.506227.150 and TcCLB.510879.50, which have differences in some residues that could elicit changes in nucleotide and nucleoside binding.