Stem-Loop Structures in Iron-Regulated mRNAs of Giardia duodenalis .
Laura Y Plata-GuzmánRossana ArroyoNidia León-SicairosCanizalez-Román AdrianHéctor S López-MorenoJeanett Chávez-OntiverosJosé A Garzón-TiznadoClaudia León-SicairosPublished in: International journal of environmental research and public health (2023)
Giardia duodenalis is a significant cause of waterborne and foodborne infections, day-care center outbreaks, and traveler's diarrhea worldwide. In protozoa such as Trichomonas vaginalis and Entamoeba histolytica, iron affects the growth, pathogenicity mechanisms, and expression of virulence genes. One of the proposed iron regulatory mechanisms is at the post-transcriptional level through an IRE/IRP-like (iron responsive element/iron regulatory protein) system. Recently, the expression of many putative giardial virulence factors in the free-iron levels has been reported in subsequent RNAseq experiments; however, the iron regulatory mechanism remains unknown. Thus, this work aimed to determine the effects of iron on the growth, gene expression, and presence of IRE-like structures in G. duodenalis . First, the parasite's growth kinetics at different iron concentrations were studied, and the cell viability was determined. It was observed that the parasite can adapt to an iron range from 7.7 to 500 µM; however, in conditions without iron, it is unable to survive in the culture medium. Additionally, the iron modulation of three genes was determined by RT-PCR assays. The results suggested that Actin , glucosamine-6-phosphate deaminase , and cytochrome b5 mRNA were down-regulated by iron. To investigate the presence of IRE-like structures, in silico analyses were performed for different mRNAs from the Giardia genome database. The Zuker mfold v2.4 web server and theoretical analysis were used to predict the secondary structures of the 91 mRNAs analyzed. Interestingly, the iron-induced downregulation of the genes analyzed corresponds to the location of the stem-loop structures found in their UTR regions. In conclusion, iron modulates the growth and expression of specific genes, likely due to the presence of IRE-like structures in G. duodenalis mRNAs.
Keyphrases
- iron deficiency
- gene expression
- transcription factor
- poor prognosis
- high resolution
- healthcare
- escherichia coli
- genome wide
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- staphylococcus aureus
- cell proliferation
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- emergency department
- binding protein
- oxidative stress
- mass spectrometry
- small molecule
- signaling pathway
- cystic fibrosis
- palliative care
- protein protein
- genome wide analysis
- drug delivery
- drug induced
- quality improvement
- long non coding rna
- clostridium difficile
- candida albicans
- amino acid
- irritable bowel syndrome