Chromatin Proteomics Reveals Variable Histone Modifications during the Life Cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi

Author
Teresa Cristina Leandro de Jesus^†‡, Vinícius Santana Nunes^§, Mariana de Camargo Lopes^†, Daiana Evelin Martil^‡, Leo Kei Iwai^†, Nilmar Silvio Moretti^§, Fabrício Castro Machado^§, Mariana L. de Lima-Stein^§, Otavio Henrique Thiemann^‡, Maria Carolina Elias^†, Christian Janzen^∥, Sergio Schenkman^§ and Julia Pinheiro Chagas da Cunha^*†

*Phone: +(55) 11 26279731; e-mail: julia.cunha@butantan.gov.br.

†Laboratório Especial de Ciclo Celular, Center of Toxins, Immune Response and Cell Signaling - CeTICS, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo 05503-900, Brazil

‡Departamento de Física e Informática, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, São Carlos, São Paulo 13563-120, Brazil

§Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04039-032, Brazil

∥Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Theodor-Boveri-Institute at the Biocenter, University of Würzburg, 97070 Germany

Journal of Proteome Research

Vol. 15: Issue. 6: Pages. 2039-2051

Publication Date (Web): April 25, 2016

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00208

Histones are well-conserved proteins that form the basic structure of chromatin in eukaryotes and undergo several post-translational modifications, which are important for the control of transcription, replication, DNA damage repair, and chromosome condensation. In early branched organisms, histones are less conserved and appear to contain alternative sites for modifications, which could reveal evolutionary unique functions of histone modifications in gene expression and other chromatin-based processes. Here, by using high-resolution mass spectrometry, we identified and quantified histone post-translational modifications in two life cycle stages of Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite that causes Chagas disease. We detected 44 new modifications, namely: 18 acetylations, seven monomethylations, seven dimethylations, seven trimethylations, and four phosphorylations. We found that replicative (epimastigote stage) contains more histone modifications than nonreplicative and infective parasites (trypomastigote stage). Acetylations of lysines at the C-terminus of histone H2A and methylations of lysine 23 of histone H3 were found to be enriched in trypomastigotes.

For further details log on website :
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00205