Korean J Parasitol.  2001 Jun;39(2):151-160. 10.3347/kjp.2001.39.2.151.

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) analysis of Acanthamoeba healyi

• Kong HH
• Hwang MY
• Kim HK
• Chung DI

• KMID: 1039037
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2001.39.2.151

Abstract

Randomly selected 435 clones from Acanthamoeba healyi cDNA library were sequenced and a total of 387 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) had been generated. Based on the results of BLAST search, 130 clones (34.4%) were identified as the genes encoding surface proteins, enzymes for DNA, energy production or other metabolism, kinases and phosphatases, protease, proteins for signal transduction, structural and cytoskeletal proteins, cell cycle related proteins, transcription factors, transcription and translational machineries, and transporter proteins. Most of the genes (88.5%) are newly identified in the genus Acanthamoeba. Although 15 clones matched the genes of Acanthamoeba located in the public databases, twelve clones were actin gene which was the most frequently expressed gene in this study. These ESTs of Acanthamoeba would give valuable information to study the organism as a model system for biological investigations such as cytoskeleton or cell movement, signal transduction, transcriptional and translational regulations. These results would also provide clues to elucidate factors for pathogenesis in human granulomatous amoebic encephalitis or keratitis by Acanthamoeba.

MeSH Terms

Acanthamoeba/cytology/*genetics/pathogenicity
Amebiasis/parasitology
Animals
DNA, Protozoan/*genetics
*Expressed Sequence Tags
Gene Library
Human
Protozoan Proteins/genetics
*Sequence Analysis, DNA
Signal Transduction
Support, Non-U.S. Gov't