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Keeping Balance Between Genetic Stability And Plasticity At The Telomere And Subtelomere Of Trypanosoma Brucei, Bibo Li Ph.D.
Keeping Balance Between Genetic Stability And Plasticity At The Telomere And Subtelomere Of Trypanosoma Brucei, Bibo Li Ph.D.
Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications
Telomeres, the nucleoprotein complexes at chromosome ends, are well-known for their essential roles in genome integrity and chromosome stability. Yet, telomeres and subtelomeres are frequently less stable than chromosome internal regions. Many subtelomeric genes are important for responding to environmental cues, and subtelomeric instability can facilitate organismal adaptation to extracellular changes, which is a common theme in a number of microbial pathogens. In this review, I will focus on the delicate and important balance between stability and plasticity at telomeres and subtelomeres of a kinetoplastid parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, which causes human African trypanosomiasis and undergoes antigenic variation to evade the …
Trypanosoma Brucei Rap1 Has Essential Functional Domains That Are Required For Different Protein Interactions, Marjia Afrin, Hanadi Kishmiri, Ranjodh Sandhu, M. A.G. Rabbani, Bibo Li
Trypanosoma Brucei Rap1 Has Essential Functional Domains That Are Required For Different Protein Interactions, Marjia Afrin, Hanadi Kishmiri, Ranjodh Sandhu, M. A.G. Rabbani, Bibo Li
Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications
RAP1 is a telomere protein that is well conserved from protozoa to mammals. It plays important roles in chromosome end protection, telomere length control, and gene expression/silencing at both telomeric and nontelomeric loci. Interaction with different partners is an important mechanism by which RAP1 executes its different functions in yeast. The RAP1 ortholog in Trypanosoma brucei is essential for variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) monoallelic expression, an important aspect of antigenic variation, where T. brucei regularly switches its major surface antigen, VSG, to evade the host immune response. Like other RAP1 orthologs, T. brucei RAP1 (TbRAP1) has conserved functional domains, including …
A Newly Discovered Role Of Telomeres In An Ancient Organism, Bibo Li
A Newly Discovered Role Of Telomeres In An Ancient Organism, Bibo Li
Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications
Trypanosoma brucei expresses Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) genes in a strictly monoallelic fashion in its mammalian hosts, and the regulation of this important virulence mechanism has been the research focus for decades. Telomere position effect (TPE), an epigenetic phenomenon, has been proposed to play a critical role in VSG regulation, yet no telomeric protein was identified whose disruption led to VSG derepression. We recently identified tbRAP1 as an intrinsic component of the T. brucei telomere complex and a major regulator for silencing VSG expression sites (ESs). Knockdown of tbRAP1 led to derepression of all ES-linked VSGs but not VSGs located …