Histone methyltransferase 1 regulates THE encystation process in the parasite Giardia lamblia

SALUSSO, AGOSTINA; ZLOCOWSKI, NATACHA; MAYOL, GONZALO; ZAMPONI, NAHUEL; R?POLO, ANDREA S.

FEBS JOURNAL

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2017

1742-464X

n eukaryotes, histone lysine methylation is associated with either active or repressed chromatin states, depending on the status of methylation. Even when the amino-terminus of Giardia lamblia histones diverges from other organisms, these regions contain lysine residues that are potential targets for methylation. When we examined the role of the histone methyltransferase 1 (HMT1) in the regulation of the encystation process by GlHMT1 overexpression or downregulation, we observed an increase or a decrease of cyst production respectively, compared to wild-type trophozoites. A time-lapse analysis of encystation showed that overexpression of GlHMT1 induced an earlier and faster process than in wild-type cells together with an upregulation of mRNA expression of cyst wall proteins. Subcellular localization studies indicated that GlHMT1-HA was mainly associated with the nuclear and perinuclear region in both growing and encysting parasites, in agreement with bioinformatics analyses showing t