Biochemical characterization of a low-affinity arginine permease from the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi.

Gaspar E Canepa, Ariel M Silber, León A Bouvier, Claudio A Pereira

Laboratorio de Biología Molecular de Trypanosoma cruzi, Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas Alfredo Lanari, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

FEMS microbiology letters 2004 Jul 1

filter terms:

Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, uses arginine for several metabolic processes, including energy reserves management. In the present work, a novel low-affinity arginine transport system has been studied. Maximum velocity (97 pmol min(-1) per 10(7) cells), and an estimate for the apparent Km value (350 microM) of this arginine transporter, were 6-fold and 80-fold higher respectively, when compared with the previously described high-affinity arginine transport system. This transport activity seems to be H+ -mediated, presents a broad specificity by other amino acids such as methionine, and is regulated along the parasite growth curve and life cycle.

Citation

Gaspar E Canepa, Ariel M Silber, León A Bouvier, Claudio A Pereira. Biochemical characterization of a low-affinity arginine permease from the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. FEMS microbiology letters. 2004 Jul 1;236(1):79-84