XXII. BIOCHEMICKÝ ZJAZD - Jesseniova lekárska fakulta

Lectures
SPECIALITIES OF OXIDATIVE PHOSPHORYLATION OF TRYPANOSOMATIDS
AND EUGLENAS
Anton Horváth 1 , Ingrid Škodová 1 , Anna Gnipová 1 , Alena Zíková 2 ,
Vladislava Benkovičová 1 , Zdeněk Verner 2 , Zdeněk Paris 2 and Július Lukeš 2
1
Department of Biochemistry FNS UK, Bratislava, Slovak republic, 2 Institute
of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Trypanosomatids and euglenas are protists that belong to common phylum Euglenozoa.
Despite their relatively close relations they differ quite strongly. Euglenas usually live in
freshwater environments and contain chloroplasts with functional photosynthetic apparatus.
In contrast with that all trypanosomatids are obligatory parasites and they are
the only known eukaryotes with glycolysis separated from cytosol to special organelles
- glycosomes. Euglenas and trypanosomatids are able suppress and again activate their
oxidative phosphorylation depending on changing living conditions and they both have
some alternative pathways to classical respiratory chain. So they are good models for
study individual enzyme of oxidative phosphorylation and their importance for metabolism
in different living conditions. In our lab we work with 4 different trypanosomatids and
with Euglena gracilis and its mutants that are not able photosynthesis. Here we report
about our two lines of our research:
1. Localization and activity of two different FAD dependent glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenases
and functions of several polypeptides associated with cytochrome C oxidase
in Trypanosoma brucei
2. General characterization of enzymes of respiratory chain in Euglena gracilis and their
significance in cells grown on light and dark
60 XXII. Biochemistry Congress, Martin