Journal article

Publication year: 2006

Pages: 496-505

Journal: Nucleic Acids Research

Volume number: 34

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 0305-1048

eISSN: 1362-4962

Open access status: Gold

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj450

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract: 
The use of selenocysteine (Sec) as the 21st amino acid in the genetic code has been described in all three major domains of life. However, within eukaryotes, selenoproteins are only known in animals and algae. In this study, we characterized selenoproteomes and Sec insertion systems in protozoan Apicomplexa parasites. We found that among these organisms, Plasmodium and Toxoplasma utilized Sec, whereas Cryptosporidium did not. However, Plasmodium had no homologs of known selenoproteins. By searching computationally for evolutionarily conserved selenocysteine insertion sequence (SECIS) elements, which are RNA structures involved in Sec insertion, we identified four unique Plasmodium falciparum selenoprotein genes. These selenoproteins were incorrectly annotated in PlasmoDB, were conserved in other Plasmodia and had no detectable homologs in other species. We provide evidence that two Plasmodium SECIS elements supported Sec insertion into parasite and endogenous selenoproteins when they were expressed in mammalian cells, demonstrating that the Plasmodium SECIS elements are functional and indicating conservation of Sec insertion between Apicomplexa and animals. Dependence of the plasmodial parasites on selenium suggests possible strategies for antimalarial drug development.

Harvard Citation style: Lobanov, A., Delgado, C., Rahlfs, S., Novoselov, S., Kryukov, G., Gromer, S., et al. (2006) The Plasmodium selenoproteome, Nucleic Acids Research, 34(2), pp. 496-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj450

APA Citation style: Lobanov, A., Delgado, C., Rahlfs, S., Novoselov, S., Kryukov, G., Gromer, S., Hatfield, D., Becker, K., & Gladyshev, V. (2006). The Plasmodium selenoproteome. Nucleic Acids Research. 34(2), 496-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj450