Identification of Leishmania-specific protein phosphorylation sites by LC-ESI-MS/MS and comparative genomics analyses

Sonia Hem (1) , Pier Federico Gherardini (2) , José Osorio y Fortéa (3) , Veronique Hourdel (1) , Miguel A. Morales (4, 5) , Reiko Watanabe (4, 5) , Pascale Pescher (4, 5) , Michael A. Kuzyk (6) , Derek Smith (6) , Christoph H. Borchers (6) , Dan Zilberstein (7) , Manuela Helmer-Citterich (2) , Abdelkader Namane (1) , Gerald F Späth (4, 5)

1 Protéomique (Plate-Forme)
2 Centre for Molecular Bioinformatics
3 Immunophysiologie et Parasitisme Intracellulaire
4 Virulence Parasitaire
5 Inserm Avenir Group
6 UVic-Genome BC Proteomics Centre - Genome British Columbia Proteomics Centre [Victoria]
7 Faculty of Biology

Human pathogenic protozoa of the genus Leishmania undergo various developmental transitions during the infectious cycle that are triggered by changes in the host environment. How these parasites sense, transduce, and respond to these signals is only poorly understood. Here we used phosphoproteomic approaches to monitor signaling events in L. donovani axenic amastigotes, which may be important for intracellular parasite survival. LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis of IMAC-enriched phosphoprotein extracts identified 445 putative phosphoproteins in two independent biological experiments. Functional enrichment analysis allowed us to gain insight into parasite pathways that are regulated by protein phosphorylation and revealed significant enrichment in our data set of proteins whose biological functions are associated with protein turn-over, stress response, and signal transduction. LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis of TiO(2)-enriched phosphopeptides confirmed these results and identified 157 unique phosphopeptides covering 181 unique phosphorylation sites in 126 distinct proteins. Investigation of phosphorylation site conservation across related trypanosomatids and higher eukaryotes by multiple sequence alignment and cluster analysis revealed L. donovani-specific phosphoresidues in highly conserved proteins that share significant sequence homology to orthologs of the human host. These unique phosphorylation sites reveal important differences between host and parasite biology and post-translational protein regulation, which may be exploited for the design of novel anti-parasitic interventions.

Keywords: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Cells; Cultured; Chromatography; Liquid; Cluster Analysis; Databases; Protein; Electrophoresis; Gel; Two-Dimensional; Fungal Proteins; Humans; Leishmania; Life Cycle Stages; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Phosphoproteins; Proteomics; Sequence Alignment; Spectrometry; Mass; Electrospray Ionization; Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology

Sonia Hem, Pier Federico Gherardini, José Osorio y Fortéa, Veronique Hourdel, Miguel A. Morales, et al.. Identification of Leishmania-specific protein phosphorylation sites by LC-ESI-MS/MS and comparative genomics analyses. Proteomics, 2010, 10 (21), pp.3868-3883. ⟨10.1002/pmic.201000305⟩. ⟨pasteur-01433567⟩