A touch of Zen: post‐translational regulation of the Leishmania stress response. (8th April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Späth, Gerald F.; Drini, Sima; Rachidi, Najma
• Is Part Of: Cellular microbiology. Volume 17:Number 5(2015:May)
• Page Start: 632
• Page End: 638
• Publication Date: 2015-04-08
• Subjects: Microbiology -- Periodicals; Cytology -- Periodicals; Host-parasite relationships -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; Cells -- Periodicals; Microbiologie -- Périodiques; Microbiologie; Relation hôte-parasite; Cytologie; Cellule; Réponse cellulaire; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); 579.05
• DOI: 10.1111/cmi.12440
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-5814

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Across bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic kingdoms, heat shock proteins (HSPs) are defined as a class of highly conserved chaperone proteins that are rapidly induced in response to temperature increase through dedicated heat shock transcription factors. While this transcriptional response governs cellular adaptation of fungal, plant and animal cells to thermic shock and other forms of stress, early‐branching eukaryotes of the kinetoplastid order, including trypanosomatid parasites, lack classical mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and show largely constitutive expression of HSPs, thus raising important questions on the function of HSPs in the absence of stress and the regulation of their chaperone activity in response to environmental adversity. Understanding parasite‐specific mechanisms of stress‐response regulation is especially relevant for protozoan parasites of the genus <italic>L</italic><italic>eishmania</italic> that are adapted for survival inside highly toxic phagolysosomes of host macrophages causing the various immuno‐pathologies of leishmaniasis. Here we review recent advances on the function and regulation of chaperone activities in these kinetoplastid pathogens and propose a new model for stress‐response regulation through a reciprocal regulatory relationship between stress kinases and chaperones that may be relevant for parasite‐adaptive differentiation and infectivity.</p> </abstract>