RESEARCH ARTICLE Replication Protein A Presents Canonical Functions and Is Also Involved in the Differentiation Capacity of Trypanosoma cruzi Raphael Souza Pavani1,2, Marcelo Santos da Silva1,2, Carlos Alexandre Henrique Fernandes3, Flavia Souza Morini4, Christiane Bezerra Araujo1,2, Marcos Roberto de Mattos Fontes3, Osvaldo Augusto Sant'Anna2,5, Carlos Renato Machado6, Maria Isabel Cano7, Stenio Perdigão Fragoso4, Maria Carolina Elias1,2* 1 LaboratoÂrio Especial de Ciclo Celular, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 2 Center of Toxins, Immune Response and Cell SignalingÐCeTICS, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, a11111 3 Departamento de FõÂsica e BiofõÂsica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista JuÂlio de Mesquita Filho -UNESP, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, 4 Instituto Carlos Chagas, Fiocruz-PR, Brazil, 5 LaboratoÂrio de ImunoquõÂmica, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 6 Departamento de BioquõÂmica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 7 Departamento de GeneÂtica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio Mesquita FilhoÐ UNESP, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Citation: Pavani RS, da Silva MS, Fernandes CAH, Abstract Morini FS, Araujo CB, Fontes MRdM, et al. (2016) Replication Protein A Presents Canonical Functions Replication Protein A (RPA), the major single stranded DNA binding protein in eukaryotes, and Is Also Involved in the Differentiation Capacity of Trypanosoma cruzi. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10(12): is composed of three subunits and is a fundamental player in DNA metabolism, participating e0005181. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005181 in replication, transcription, repair, and the DNA damage response. In human pathogenic Editor: Carlos A.