Effects of ethidium bromide and several acridine dyes on the kinetoplast DNA of Leishmania tropica

Structure and expression of a tandem gene pair in Leishmania donovani that encodes a protein structurally homologous to eucaryotic cation-transporting ATPases

An oligonucleotide probe was used to clone a cation-transporting ATPase gene from the genome of Leishmania donovani. The nucleotide sequence of the gene contained a 2,922-base-pair open reading frame that was predicted to encode a 107,406-dalton protein composed of 974 amino acids. The predicted L. donovani protein contained all the structural and functional domains expected to be present in a cation-transporting ATPase of the aspartyl phosphate class. The nucleotide sequence encoding the ATPase gene was duplicated in tandem in the parasite genome. Partial sequenation of the second member of the tandem repeat, which lay 2 kilobase pairs downstream of the ATPase gene, indicated that it was either identical to the first gene or very closely related to it. RNA homologous to either the ATPase gene or its adjacent relative was 5 kilobases in size and was approximately equally abundant in both promastigote and amastigote forms of the organism.

Structure and expression of a tandem gene pair in Leishmania donovani that encodes a protein structurally homologous to eucaryotic cation-transporting ATPases

An oligonucleotide probe was used to clone a cation-transporting ATPase gene from the genome of Leishmania donovani. The nucleotide sequence of the gene contained a 2,922-base-pair open reading frame that was predicted to encode a 107,406-dalton protein composed of 974 amino acids. The predicted L. donovani protein contained all the structural and functional domains expected to be present in a cation-transporting ATPase of the aspartyl phosphate class. The nucleotide sequence encoding the ATPase gene was duplicated in tandem in the parasite genome. Partial sequenation of the second member of the tandem repeat, which lay 2 kilobase pairs downstream of the ATPase gene, indicated that it was either identical to the first gene or very closely related to it. RNA homologous to either the ATPase gene or its adjacent relative was 5 kilobases in size and was approximately equally abundant in both promastigote and amastigote forms of the organism.

Effect of berenil on growth, mitochondrial DNA and respiration of Leishmania tarentolae promastigotes

Incubation of Leishmania tarentolae promastigotes in 1.0 microgram/ml Berenil for 96 hr resulted in approximately 33% inhibition of cell growth and approximately 42.5% dyskinetoplasty in the cell population. The buoyant density of kinetoplast DNA (kDNA), p = 1.703 g/ml, remained unchanged after 96-hr exposure to the drug. Endogenous respiration as well as proline- and glucose-induced respiration dropped markedly after 36-hr exposure to Berenil. This drop occurred approximately 12 hr before the onset of dyskinetoplasty, a result which suggests that this drug adversely affects mitochondrial respiratory activity of the promastigotes.