Metabolomic profiling reveals a finely tuned, starvation-induced metabolic switch in Trypanosoma cruziepimastigotes

Barisón, María Julia; Rapado, Ludmila Nakamura; Merino, Emilio F.; Furusho Pral, Elizabeth Mieko; Mantilla, Brian Suarez; Marchese, Letícia; Nowicki, Cristina; Silber, Ariel Mariano; Cassera, Maria Belen

Abstract

Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, is a protozoan parasite with a complex life cycle involving a triatomine insect and mammals. Throughout its life cycle, the T. cruzi parasite faces several alternating events of cell division and cell differentiation in which exponential and stationary growth phases play key biological roles. It is well accepted that arrest of the cell division in the epimastigote stage, both in the midgut of the triatomine insect and in vitro, is required for metacyclogenesis, and it has been previously shown that the parasites change the expression profile of several proteins when entering this quiescent stage. However, little is known about the metabolic changes that epimastigotes undergo before they develop into the metacyclic trypomastigote stage. We applied targeted metabolomics to measure the metabolic intermediates in the most relevant pathways for energy metabolism and oxidative imbalance in exponentially growing and stationary growth-arrested epimastigote parasites. We show for the first time that T. cruzi epimastigotes transitioning from the exponential to the stationary phase exhibit a finely tuned adaptive metabolic mechanism that enables switching from glucose to amino acid consumption, which is more abundant in the stationary phase. This metabolic plasticity appears to be crucial for survival of the T. cruzi parasite in the myriad different environmental conditions to which it is exposed during its life cycle.

Citation

Barisón, M. J., Rapado, L. N., Merino, E. F., Furusho Pral, E. M., Mantilla, B. S., Marchese, L., Nowicki, C., Silber, A. M., & Cassera, M. B. (2017). Metabolomic profiling reveals a finely tuned, starvation-induced metabolic switch in Trypanosoma cruziepimastigotes. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 292(21), 8964-8977. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m117.778522

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Mar 29, 2017
• Publication Date: May 26, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 17, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Biological Chemistry
• Print ISSN: 0021-9258
• Electronic ISSN: 1083-351X
• Publisher: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 292
• Issue: 21
• Pages: 8964-8977
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m117.778522
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1292972