Molecular identification and phylogenetic relationships of trichomonad isolates of galliform birds inferred from nuclear small subunit rRNA gene sequences.

Histomonas meleagridis is the etiological agent of histomonosis or blackhead disease. Recently, genotyping, based on polymerase chain reaction and sequencing of internal transcribed spacer-1 sequences was applied to various isolates originating from fowl. Three genotypes were described: types I and II isolates were associated with clinical disease and probably derived from H. meleagridis, whereas, type III isolates were not disease-associated and likely corresponded to Parahistomonas wenrichi according to morphological observations. However, this latter species has never been characterized at the molecular level and its phylogenetic relationships with other parabasalids remained hypothetical. To confirm the identification of these isolates, small subunit rRNA gene sequences were obtained from representatives of types I, II, and III and analyzed in a broad phylogeny including 64 other parabasalid sequences. From our phylogenetic trees, we confirmed that types I and II isolates were closely related, if not identical, to H. meleagridis, while type III isolates represented P. wenrichi. Both species clustered together with high support. This grouping suggested that speciation leading to these two species inhabiting the same hosts and ecological niche occurred recently in birds. In addition, speciation was likely followed by loss of pathogenicity in P. wenrichi.

Molecular cloning and characterization of Schistosoma mansoni Ftz-F1 interacting protein-1 (SmFIP-1), a novel corepressor of the nuclear receptor SmFtz-F1.

In order to characterize protein cofactors of the Schistosoma mansoni nuclear receptor SmFtz-F1, we have screened a yeast two-hybrid adult worm cDNA library using a construct expressing the D, E and F domains of SmFtz-F1 as bait. One of the selected clones encoded a sequence without homologues in any other species, apart from Schistosoma japonicum. The complete sequence was obtained by 5' and 3' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and comprised 3660 nucleotides with an open reading frame of 788 amino acids. The gene is expressed at all schistosome life cycle stages at a 5-11-fold higher level than SmFtz-f1. The protein, named SmFIP-1, interacted with SmFtz-F1 in a GST pull-down assay and in a mammalian two-hybrid assay in CV-1 cells. Although SmFIP-1 contains a consensus NR box (LXXLL) this was not involved in the interaction with SmFtz-F1. However, interaction did depend on the AF2-AD motif in the nuclear receptor ligand binding domain. Deletion analysis showed that the C-terminal moiety of SmFIP-1 was involved in the binding, but this could not be localized to a particular motif, suggesting that the binding may be conformation-dependent. Finally, SmFIP-1 markedly repressed SmFtz-F1-mediated transcription in a dose-dependent manner from the SmFtz-f1 gene promoter demonstrating that SmFIP-1 is a schistosome-specific transcriptional corepressor.