Complete set of mitochondrial pan-edited mRNAs in Leishmania mexicana amazonensis LV78

Editing of mRNA transcribed from the mitochondrial cryptogenes ND8 (G1), ND9 (G2), G3, G4, ND3 (G5), RPS12 (G6) was investigated in Leishmania mexicana amazonensis, strain LV78, by amplification of the cDNA, cloning and sequencing. For each of these genes, extensively and partially edited transcripts were found to be relatively abundant compared to the respective pre-edited molecules. Moreover, the editing patterns observed in a majority of transcripts of each gene were consistent among themselves which allowed for inferring consensus editing sequences. The open reading frames contained in the consensus sequences were predicted to encode polypeptides that were highly similar to their counterparts in other species of Trypanosomatidae. Several kinetoplast DNA minicircles from this species available in the public domain were found to contain genes for guide RNAs which mediate editing of some of the mRNAs. The results indicate that the investigated strain of L. m. amazonensis has preserved its full editing capacity in spite of the long-term maintenance in culture. This property differs drastically from the other Leishmania species which lost some or all of the G1-G5 mRNA editing ability in culture.