Only a few telomeric learn more proteins that bind the double-stranded form of telomeric DNA AP26113 nmr have been described in Leishmania and in their trypanosome counterparts [17, 23]. Homologues of human TRF have been found in the genomes of T. brucei, T. cruzi and L. major based on sequence similarities to the C-terminal Myb-like DNA binding domain. For example, the T. brucei TRF2 homologue known as TbTRF shares a similar telomere end-protection function with vertebrate TRF2 [24]. Results and Discussion Characterization of the putative L. amazonensis TRF gene homologue Using data mining via the

OmniBLAST server we searched the whole L. major genome database http://​www.​ebi.​ac.​uk/​parasites/​leish.​html Selleck BMN-673 for a putative sequence that shared similarities with the vertebrate TRF1 and TRF2 proteins. For this search, we used the most conserved part of both human proteins, the C-terminal fragment containing the Myb-like DNA binding domain. The search returned a single sequence

(GenBank acc. no. XP_001682531.1) that encoded a hypothetical protein (GenBank acc. no. Q4QDR7, GeneDB_Lmajor LmjF18.1250), the C-terminus of which shared ~30% identity and 50-55% similarity with the vertebrate TRF Myb-like domain, according to the blast2 sequence analysis (Table 1). Based on the L. major sequence, primers were designed for PCR amplification of the entire homologous sequence from L. amazonensis with genomic DNA as the template. PCR products of 2,931 bp were cloned into the vector pCR2.1 and both insert strands were sequenced (data not shown). The

deduced polypeptide sequence of 796 amino acid residues contained a putative C-terminal Myb-like DNA binding domain between 4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase residues 684-733, according to psi-blast (Fig 1 – top). The LaTRF gene (GenBank acc. no. EF559263) shared high sequence identity and similarity to the putative L. major TRF, and to hypothetical L. infantum and L. braziliensis TRFs (Table 1). The sequence conservation between LaTRF and the trypanosome TbTRF and the putative TcTRF homologues decreased to 35-45% identity (Table 1), consistent with the known evolutionary relationships among these organisms. The Leishmania TRF homologues encode the largest TRF protein (~82.5 kDa) described so far. The fact that the Leishmania proteins showed much greater homology with each other than with other protozoan proteins and that they are the largest TRF described so far resembles the situation for Leishmania telomerase protein [25].