Abstract
The Leishmania amazonensis telomerase gene was cloned by a polymerase chain reaction-based strategy using primers designed from a Leishmania major sequence that shared similarities with conserved telomerase motifs. The genes from three other species were cloned for comparative purposes. A ClustalW multiple-sequence alignment demonstrated that the Leishmania telomerases show greater homology with each other than with the proteins of other kinetoplastids and eukaryotes. Characterization experiments indicated that the putative Leishmania telomerase gene was probably in single copy and located in the largest chromosomes. A single messenger ribonucleic acid transcript was found in promastigotes. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Leishmania telomerase might represent a liaison between the oldest and the newest branches of telomerases.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank colleagues in Dr. M.I.N. Cano’s laboratory for helpful discussions during the experiments described here, J. Borecký (Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, UNICAMP) for the assistance during the construction of the phylogenetic tree and S. Hyslop (Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, UNICAMP) for reviewing the English of the manuscript. This investigation received support from the UNDP/World Bank/World Health Organization Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR, ID A00753) and from FAPESP (grant 00/01138-6). M.A. Giardini was supported by a doctoral fellowship from FAPESP (grant 03/01783-7). All the experiments described comply with the current laws of Brazil where the experiments were performed.
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Giardini, M.A., Lira, C.B.B., Conte, F.F. et al. The putative telomerase reverse transcriptase component of Leishmania amazonensis: gene cloning and characterization. Parasitol Res 98, 447–454 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-005-0036-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-005-0036-4