Pyruvate-converting activity in the spores of the microsporidian genus Paranosema (Antonospora) Viacheslav V. Dolgikh & Ruslan I. Al-Shekhadat
Laboratory of Microbiological Control, All-Russian Institute for Plant Protection, St Petersburg, Russia
Correspondence: Viacheslav V. Dolgikh, Abstract Laboratory of Microbiological Control, All- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/259/1/142/453567 by guest on 03 October 2021 Russian Institute for Plant Protection, 3 Microsporidia, a large group of fungi-related protozoa with an obligate intracel- Podbelskogo Rd., Pushkin, St. Petersburg lular lifestyle, are characterized by a drastically reduced cell machinery and a 196608, Russia. Tel.: 17 812 4705110; fax: unique metabolism. These parasites possess genes encoding glycolysis components 17 812 4705110; e-mail: and glycerol-phosphate shuttle, but lack typical mitochondria, Krebs cycle, [email protected] respiratory chain and pyruvate-converting enzymes, except for two subunits of
the E1 enzyme of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. This study demonstrates Received 8 December 2005; revised 28 March that in spite of the above, destroyed spores of the microsporidian Paranosema 2006; accepted 28 March 2006. (Antonospora) grylli and P. locustae deplete pyruvate content in the incubation First published online May 2006. medium. This activity is sensitive to heat, proportionally distributed between the doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2006.00259.x soluble and the insoluble fractions and does not depend on additional ions or cofactors. Editor: Claire Remacle
Keywords microsporidia; spores; pyruvate metabolism; enzyme activity.
the mitosome, rather than in the accumulation of glycerol- Introduction 3-phosphate as an end product of glycolysis. Thus, all trioses Microsporidia make up a large group of intracellular formed in glycolysis should be finally converted into pyr- eukaryotic parasites infecting a wide range of animals and uvate. At the same time, according to the data from the some protozoan species. Several genera are of medical human parasite Encephalitozoon cuniculi genome project, significance since they infect humans, mostly immunodefi- microsporidia lack any pyruvate-converting enzymes except cient patients. As a result of their intracellular lifestyle, these two subunits of the E1 component of the pyruvate dehydro- fungi-related parasites have lost lysosomes, peroxisomes, genase complex (PDH). Neither E2 nor E3 enzymes of PDH typical mitochondria, a classical Golgi complex, many were found in the microsporidial genome (Katinka et al., metabolic pathways and reduced their genome down to the 2001). The presence of genes encoding both E1 PDH minimal level possible (Katinka et al., 2001). Microsporidia subunits was also demonstrated for the distantly related to possess genes encoding enzymes of the Embden–Meyerhof E. cuniculi microsporidia Paranosema (Antonospora) locus- pathway, but lack tricarboxylic acid cycle and respiratory tae (Fast & Keeling, 2001). Recently, participation of micro- chain components. Since glycerol-3-P dehydrogenase (G- sporidial PDH E1 in the further metabolizing of pyruvate 3-PDH) has been shown to be a single potential enzyme was supported by the demonstration of expression of both reoxidizing NADH generated in glycolysis (Dolgikh et al., subunits in P. locustae spores (Williams & Keeling, 2005). 1997; Katinka et al., 2001), glycerol-3-phosphate was con- In this study, we have shown that destroyed spores of the sidered as an end product of anaerobic catabolism. However, microsporidian Paranosema (Antonospora) grylli deplete in addition to G-3-PDH, the second (mitochondrial) com- pyruvate content in the incubation medium. This activity ponent of glycerol-phosphate shuttle was found in micro- was sensitive to heat, present in soluble and insoluble sporidial genome (Katinka et al., 2001). Furthermore, fractions and did not require any additional ions or cofac- mitochondria-derived cryptic organelles called ‘mitosomes’ tors. However, dialysis of spore proteins followed by pre- were described in the microsporidian Trachipleistophora cipitation with 80% ammonium sulphate caused enzyme hominis (Williams et al., 2002). This suggests that G- inactivation. Broken spores of the closely related species 3-PDH participates in the transportation of electrons into P. locustae demonstrate a similar rate of pyruvate-converting