Metabolic impact on the regulation of the L-arginine transporter in the polyamines pathway of Leishmania amazonensis

Abstract

Leishmania is auxotrophic for amino acids and nutrients and has a specific transport for L-arginine mediated by amino acid porter-3 (AAP3) inpromastigote and amastigote forms. This transporter is encoded in two copies in the parasite's genome, one of which is regulated by the presence of the amino acid itself, externally or internally, in addition to pH, temperature and parasite arginase enzyme activity. The PD proposal has as its central objective to characterize the physiological role and cell location of the L-arginine transporter AAP3 through the application of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. (AU)