A transcriptional analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei hsp83 gene cluster

Ten to twelve copies of the 83-kDa heat-shock protein gene (hsp83) from Trypanosoma brucei are arranged in a head-to-tail tandem array of 2.8-kb repeat units, which are transcribed to give 2.6-kb mature mRNAs. We have cloned and sequenced one of the repeat units. The gene encodes a putative protein of 81 kDa which is highly homologous to Hsp83 of Drosophila melanogaster (75%), Hsp90 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (72%) and the C62.5 protein of Escherichia coli (61%). The 5' end of the mature mRNA was mapped by primer extension sequence analysis and shown to contain the spliced leader. The mapping of the 3' poly(A) addition sites by S1 analysis indicated that there is 218 nt of intergenic sequence linking the boundaries encoding the mature mRNA. Within this sequence are a number of elements conserved with the trypanosome hsp70 intergenic region, including a 14-nt sequence that also has homology to the Drosophila heat-shock consensus element.