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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Isolation of F1-ATPase from the Parasitic Protist Trypanosoma brucei
Published on: January 22, 2019
YCF45 protein, usually associated with plastids, is targeted into the mitochondrion of Trypanosoma brucei
Jirí Týc1, Shaojun Long, Milan Jirků
1Biology Centre, Institute of Parasitology, University of South Bohemia, Ceské Budejovice, Budweis, Czech Republic.
Abstract:
YCF45 belongs to a family of proteins of unknown function usually located in the chloroplast of plants. Its highly conserved homologues were found in the genomes of several Trypanosoma and Leishmania species. HA(3)-tagging of the YCF45 protein with the start codon as annotated in the Gene(DB) revealed its cytosolic localization in the cultured procyclic stage of Trypanosoma brucei. However, when a more upstream located start codon was used in another HA(3)-tagged construct, the resulting protein was targeted to the mitochondrion. We propose that YCF45 was acquired by an ancestral trypanosomatid by horizontal gene transfer and in the absence of a plastid was re-targeted to the mitochondrion.
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