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. 2025 Apr 12:758:151637.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2025.151637. Epub 2025 Mar 14.

Trypanosoma brucei L19 is essential for ribosomal function

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Trypanosoma brucei L19 is essential for ribosomal function

Juan Manuel Zárate et al. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. .

Abstract

Prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomes accumulate differences throughout their evolution, including structural variations, which have been targeted to produce drugs with differential action. Following this initial significant divergence, within the eukaryotic lineage, a group of organisms has emerged that possess ribosomes with distinctive characteristics. Trypanosomatids diverged early from the rest of the eukaryotes, and several components of their protein synthesis machinery have developed differences that gave rise to unique domains. Upon studying these differences, we observed that Trypanosoma brucei ribosomal protein L19 (TbL19) possesses distinctive domains at its C-Terminal end, establishing novel interactions between the large and the small subunits of ribosomes. Furthermore, through RNAi downregulation, we demonstrate that TbL19 is essential for the survival of this parasite. Additionally, TbL19 failed to complement conditional-mutant yeasts, highlighting this evolutionary divergence. We propose that this distinct structural feature could serve as a target for new antiparasitic drugs, given its specificity to T. brucei and its close relative, Trypanosoma cruzi.

Keywords: 18S rRNA; Expanded segments; Ribosomal protein L19; Ribosome; T. brucei.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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