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About the Authors:
Juliana Ide Aoki
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected] (JIA); [email protected] (LMFW)
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Sandra Marcia Muxel
Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Ricardo Andrade Zampieri
Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Stephanie Maia Acuña
Roles Methodology, Validation
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Juliane Cristina Ribeiro Fernandes
Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Rubia Heloisa Vanderlinde
Roles Methodology, Validation
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Maria Carmen Oliveira de Pinho Sales
Roles Methodology, Validation
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Lucile Maria Floeter-Winter
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected] (JIA); [email protected] (LMFW)
Affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8954-8704Abstract
Background
Leishmania uses the amino acid L-arginine as a substrate for arginase, enzyme that produces urea and ornithine, last precursor of polyamine pathway. This pathway is used by the parasite to replicate and it is essential to establish the infection in the mammalian host. L-arginine is not synthesized by the parasite, so its uptake occurs through the amino acid permease 3 (AAP3). AAP3 is codified by two copies genes (5.1 and 4.7 copies), organized in tandem in the parasite genome. One copy presents the expression regulated by L-arginine availability.
Methodology/Principal findings
RNA-seq data revealed 14 amino acid transporters differentially expressed in the comparison of La-WT vs. La-arg- promastigotes and axenic amastigotes. The 5.1 and 4.7 aap3 transcripts were down-regulated in La-WT promastigotes vs. axenic amastigotes, and in La-WT vs. La-arg- promastigotes. In contrast, transcripts of other transporters were up-regulated in the same comparisons. The amount of...