Genome-wide identification, in silico characterization and expression analysis of ZIP-like genes from Trichomonas vaginalis in response to Zinc and Iron.

Trace elements such as Zinc and Iron are essential components of metalloproteins and serve as cofactors or structural elements for enzymes involved in several important biological processes in almost all organisms. Because either excess or insufficient levels of Zn and Fe can be harmful for the cells, the homeostatic levels of these trace minerals must be tightly regulated. The Zinc regulated transporter, Iron regulated transporter-like Proteins (ZIP) comprise a diverse family, with several paralogues in diverse organisms and are considered essential for the Zn and Fe uptake and homeostasis. Zn and Fe has been shown to regulate expression of proteins involved in metabolism and pathogenicity mechanisms in the protozoan pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis, in contrast high concentrations of these elements were also found to be toxic for T. vaginalis trophozoites. Nevertheless, Zn and Fe uptake and homeostasis mechanisms is not yet clear in this parasite. We performed a genome-wide analysis and localized the 8 members of the ZIP gene family in T. vaginalis (TvZIP1-8). The bioinformatic programs predicted that the TvZIP proteins are highly conserved and show similar properties to the reported in other ZIP orthologues. The expression patterns of TvZIP1, 3, 5 and 7 were diminished in presence of Zinc, while the rest of the TvZIP genes showed an unchanged profile in this condition. In addition, TvZIP2 and TvZIP4 showed a differential expression pattern in trophozoites growth under different Iron conditions. These results suggest that TvZIP genes encode membrane transporters that may be responsible for the Zn and Fe acquisition in T. vaginalis.

Responsiveness of Trichomonas vaginalis to iron concentrations: evidence for a post-transcriptional iron regulation by an IRE/IRP-like system.

Trichomonas vaginalis has high iron-dependency, favoring its growth and multiplication in culture. Iron also regulates some of the trichomonal virulence properties by yet unknown mechanisms. Iron is an essential but potentially toxic metal for the majority of organisms. Thus, its concentration must be tightly regulated within the cell. In mammals, the iron homeostasis is mainly regulated at the post-transcriptional level by a well known mechanism mediated by the binding of iron regulatory proteins (IRP1 and IRP2) to hairpin-loop structures, dubbed iron-responsive elements (IREs), localized in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of target mRNAs. The knowledge of iron regulation in T. vaginalis is still very limited. An iron-responsive promoter and other regulatory elements in the 5'-UTR of the ap65-1 gene were identified as a mechanism for the positive transcriptional regulation of trichomonad genes by iron. Recently, two IRE-like hairpin-loop structures in mRNAs of differentially iron-regulated TVCP4 and TVCP12 cysteine proteinases, as well as IRP-like trichomonad proteins were identified in T. vaginalis, suggesting the existence in this protozoan of a post-transcriptional iron regulatory mechanism by an IRE/IRP-like system. The responsiveness of T. vaginalis to distinct iron concentrations was examined here. Also, the comparison of the atypical IRE-like sequences of T. vaginalis with the consensus IRE and other putative IRE sequences present in parasite and bacteria mRNAs suggest that these trichomonad IRE-like sequences might be the ancestral forms of the RNA stem-loop structures of the IRE/IRP system.